


Starcrossed

by ashtraythief



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Angry Sex, BAMF Jared Padalecki, BAMF Jensen Ackles, Because it's time travel, Even Chad, M/M, Not Really Character Death, Pining, Resistance, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Time Travel, Violence, everybody is a BAMF really, which is becoming a theme for my space fics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-01 08:47:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 54,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10185461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtraythief/pseuds/ashtraythief
Summary: Jared doesn’t want much from life. A spaceship with a good crew and the vastness of the universe just an engine push away. He has no interest in politics. But when he and his crew go on the hunt for a rare artefact, he’s violently ripped out of his life and plunged straight into a bloody conflict.One hundred and forty years in the future, the world is going up in flames and resistance captain Jensen Ackles’ only goal in life is the destruction of the totalitarian Empire. But the resistance is struggling and Jensen knows time is running out.When Jared and Jensen meet, they’re united by their need to go back in time, albeit for different reasons. Torn between Jared’s desire to save his crew and Jensen’s quest for the destruction of the Empire, they have to find common ground — and figure out what exactly is worth fighting for.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Space Dig](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/272426) by Amberdreams. 



> Written for the spn_reversebang for the prompt [‘Space Dig’](https://www.flickr.com/photos/housefullofbooks/33132872031/) by Amberdreams. I don’t have to tell you that I saw archaeologists in space and knew I needed to have this one immediately (thanks to alycat for lending me her quick fingers for claims!).
> 
> I have to thank a shit ton of people for getting me here. My rock, my person, my brainstormer: my Tangy. My kittehs alycat, keep_waking_up, and kinkajou for fandom, moral and fic support, you guys rock.  
> My beta ilikaicalie who’s spending a ridiculous amount of time on this fic fixing my messes and baring with my constant color-coded changes. You are a wonderful human being and I am so fricking glad you put up with all my erratic writing.  
> My beta theatregirl7299 who again came in as last stretch support and was just wonderful. All other mistakes are mine alone.
> 
> And of course, amberdreams, who drew a fantastic piece, brainstormed and plotted with me, fixed mistakes and was generally an awesome collaborator. I’ve always loved your art and I am so glad I finally got to work with you. It was pure pleasure on my part! I sincerely apologize for being such a mess and only giving you an incomplete fic but the rest will follow!  
> You can go see amber's wonderful art [here](http://amberdreams.livejournal.com/479314.html)!
> 
> Which leads me to my final announcement: I was a failboat and did not manage to finish this story. Mod Amber was gracious enough to allow me to post the first part. I think I managed half the story and it’s a good point to take a break, so that I can post at least some words with amber’s awesome art but I promise, I will write the rest, hopefully very soon. I even have an outline and everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Prologue**

 

Jared was in the storage cupboard of the _Libby_ ’s kitchen, counting breakfast rations in metal drawers, when Chad poked his head in. His blond hair looked like someone had just spend ten minutes running their fingers through it. It wasn’t entirely unlikely.

 

“How’s it looking?” he asked, assessing the storage room with squinting eyes.

 

“We’ll be okay for a few months,” Jared said. “As soon as we can find a job, we can get out of here.”

 

They’d sold their last cargo four days ago, Jared was already getting twitchy.

 

“I might have found something,” Chad said.

 

“You _might_?”

 

“It’s different.” Chad scrunched his face up thoughtfully. “But it could be a good idea.”

 

Jared looked at him expectantly. This would either be epic or catastrophic. Chad only operated on the extreme ends of the spectrum.

 

“I met an archaeology professor who wants to join our crew.”

 

Jared waited for the punchline but apparently Chad was serious.

 

Jared burst into a short laugh. “What the fuck would a scholar want on our ship? And what would we want with them?”

 

Chad shrugged. “She said she needed work. Archaeology has been erased or something. I don’t know what the government did now, but she needs a place to stay and money and she said she knew where all the treasure is.”

 

At that, Jared perked up. He had fuel to buy, repairs to pay for. A spaceship didn’t keep flying on goodwill. The _Libby_ needed work. And that cost credit.

 

“What kind of treasure are we talking here?” he asked, because good-paying jobs had been scarce recently.

 

“She wouldn’t say. But she’s down in Mal’s bar, looking for a talk with the captain.”

 

“Well,” Jared said, getting out of the cramped storage space and closing the door behind him. “Doesn’t hurt to hear what she has to say, right?”

 

It wasn’t like he had anything better to do right now anyway, and he was going stir crazy, sitting around and waiting for work. He needed to get up in the sky again. So he grabbed his black jacket and his gun belt and walked with Chad to Mal’s bar, a dark, seedy place right at the edge of the ship docks. Jared had done more than one deal there.

 

In the bar, Chad led him to a slim, redheaded woman, who looked way younger than Jared had anticipated for a professor. She couldn’t be much older than Jared, somewhere in her  early thirties maybe. She was nervously fiddling with a napkin.

 

“That’s the good professor,” Chad introduced her. “Felicia Day.”

 

“So.” Jared sat down with a flourish, flashing his holstered gun. “I’m Captain Padalecki. My first mate here tells me you’re looking to join our crew.”

 

“Well.” The professor hesitated. “I didn’t mean _join_. I more thought I’d be some kind of advisor? For room and board and a share of the profits.”

 

Jared leaned back and raised his eyebrows. “And what would I need advising on?”

 

She swallowed audibly, then looked him straight in they eyes. “I heard you transport goods. And that you don’t always pay for them. Because they fell out of a transport hatch. Or something.”

 

“And what if that’s the case?”

 

The professor shifted in her chair, but she stuck to her guns. “It’s dangerous. And against the law. But if you sell something that doesn't belong to anyone, then it’s not a crime, is it?”

 

Scavenging was a time-honored tradition among smugglers, but opportunities didn’t just fall out of the sky. You had to know someone who knew something. “And you know about the things that don’t belong to anyone anymore,” Jared said slowly. “Like, say, an old treasure?”

 

She nodded.

 

“Aren’t you part of the people who think that old stuff belongs in museums?” Jared asked skeptically.

 

At that, her face hardened. “I used to be. But no one cared when the president practically erased our whole field of study. And let’s be serious, who even gets to go to the museums? Only the rich people. With the funding cut, ticket prices are through the roof, no one can pay for that. And you have to live on a Center planet anyway, it’s not like there are any museums out on the Rims. They carted all the good stuff off to the Center or sold it to private collectors.”

 

Jared was glad to see the professor had some spunk. She wouldn’t cut it in their crew otherwise. And he had no use for government sympathizers given that most of their activities were at least a little bit illegal. But Jared had learned a long time ago to look a gifthorse carefully in the mouth. Sometimes there was nothing in there but a hail of gunfire.

 

“So what kind of treasure are we talking here?” Jared asked.

 

She waved him off dismissively. “All kinds of things. The possibilities are endless.”

 

“If they are so endless, why haven’t you dug them up before?”

 

“Do you know how hard it is to get funding for a dig?” She flailed her hands indignantly. “The funding was never there. We have all those possible locations but no money to go check them out!”

 

Jared leaned back and crossed his arms across his chest. It sounded good. Too good.

 

The professor’s eyes flitted down to his arms and she swallowed audibly, then fiddled with her hair, pushing it behind her ear and twiddling the short strands. She was nervous, but Jared couldn’t be sure if it was because she was stretching the truth to get off planet or because she was intimidated by him. Jared was a big man. Besides working on his ship, he exercised regularly. He found that most people were much less likely to cross him when he flexed his muscles. He could just give the professor a charming smile to put her at ease, but he needed to figure out if taking her along would be worth their time.

 

“So, if we were to fly to, let’s say Hronil, would we find something there?”

 

They actually had. They’d done an emergency landing there last year and stumbled across an old settlement, buried under a ravine. They’d dug out enough old sculptures to fuel up the _Libby_ several times and have a few fun days.

 

The professor looked confused. “Hronil? Sure. I mean the first settlement was buried under a mountain slide, and if you’re lucky, some dwellings might be still intact under the rubble. The Hronians were famous for their sculpture and you could probably get some credits for them, but that wouldn’t be my first suggestion.”

 

Jared raised an eyebrow, impressed. “Then where would you go?”

 

She opened her mouth, then shut it again. “If I tell you,” she said after a short break, “and you go without me, I get nothing.”

 

A negotiator. Jared liked her more with every passing second. “How about you tell me the planet and what we could find there. We check it out and if our sources confirm your story, then we fly out and you show us exactly where to look. If we don’t find anything, we’ll leave and you can find your own ride home. Deal?”

 

She stared at him, mouth hanging open. “But that — I can’t guarantee that! Someone could have been there before me, a natural disaster could have struck, you can’t be _certain_ with these things!”

 

“Then pick the one you're most certain about. It doesn’t have to be the greatest payday, something for 500 credits is enough to keep the ship and the crew afloat for a while.”

 

She narrowed her eyes at him, seemed to deliberate. “Fine,” she said, enough bite in her voice to make Jared smile. “Arethoh. It’s not the greatest treasure but there was an outpost of Silk Weavers during the Second Settlement Wave. It was lost in an earthquake and no one ever bothered to go looking for it but I think — I know that there’s a rare tapestry. Collectors will pay 300 to 500 credits for it, depending the quality.”

 

Arethoh was on the Third Outer Rim, usually too close to the Center for Jared's liking but even 300 credits for just flying out there once and digging up a fancy carpet were good money.

 

“How sure are you it’ll still be there?” he asked.

 

“I came to the conclusion during my latest research project, but the article hasn’t been published yet. It was supposed to appear in the next Archaeology Journal but since that doesn’t exist any longer...” She trailed off angrily.

 

“So no one else knows about your conclusion?”

 

The professor nodded.

 

“Alright.” Jared smiled at her. “We’ll do this test run, see how it goes. If your intel is correct and the crew likes you, then you can stay. Deal?”

 

He offered her his hand and she gripped it with surprising strength. “Deal.”

 

“Run a background check on her,” Jared told Chad quietly on their way back to the _Libby_. “I want to know if her story checks out.”

 

He had a good feeling about the professor, but you couldn’t be too careful these days.

 

Chad nodded. “I already called Rosey. I should know in a few days.”

 

 

 

 

 

They did the test job, and it was one of the easiest runs Jared and his crew ever did.  Arethoh was a peaceful planet and no one bothered them when they landed on the sprawling hills far from the settlements. Felicia consulted her map and lead them to a rocky field. Her calculations were so exact that she pointed out a spot to them and Jared, Chad and Kim started digging. It took them maybe half an hour to reach the roof of the buried building. They rappelled down into what Felicia explained was the Chancellor’s house. The records she’d found were his personal correspondence that promised the tapestry as a gift, but it was never sent.

 

So they searched the old house, built from strong gray brick stones with surprisingly little technology. The doors had to be opened by hand, which was fortunate considering there was no more power in this buried settlement.

 

It only took Felicia a few minutes to figure out the layout of the house — “I wrote my undergrad thesis on comparative urban topography during the Sixth Settlement Wave” she said dismissively, whatever that meant — and then they were standing in a giant hallway, the walls lined with the yellow and green tapestry, decorated with intricate linear designs in blue and black. Jared didn’t know how it worked, but it looked like the lines were waving, a constant ripple sliding over the tapestry.  

 

Chad whistled. “Looks like we could get a lot of credits for that.”

 

Felicia beamed. “It’s in even better condition that I thought!”

 

In the end, Sheppard paid them 620 credits. The crew unanimously voted on spending a few days on Leico, a planet that offered all kinds of entertainment, provided you could pay for it. They hadn’t indulged in that kind of fun in a while, so Jared agreed.

 

On the way to Leico, they got a message from Rosey. Felicia’s story checked out. The government had made significant cuts to the department of education, and Archaeology was one of the programs declared obsolete and defunded. The professor was “as harmless as a baby,” Rosey said and there were no signs of any involvement with the government.

 

That was what Jared needed. But he wouldn’t take a new person on board if his crew wouldn’t like them. So, one after another, Jared talked to his crew about Felicia. No one had objections — Kim, a former law enforcer who Jared relied on for being quick on the draw, really liked her, and Osric, his mechanic, told Jared that he was excited to finally have another smart person on the ship. Chad thought she was entertaining, and their pilot Gen just shrugged. Coming from Gen, that was as enthusiastic as it could get.

 

When they landed on Leica, Jared took them to their favorite bar on this planet and bought a bottle of Delta Whiskey for the crew.

 

They drank until deep into the night and Jared wasn’t surprised that the good professor couldn’t hold her liquor. Felicia ended up leaning against Jared’s shoulder and ranting about how the new president would destroy the galaxy, one branch of education at a time. Apparently, newly elected President Pellegrino had defunded archaeology and art history throughout the galaxy, in universities, research centers, and museums. Jared wasn’t sure why people would need to study those subjects in the first place, except for treasure hunting of course, but Felicia fixed him with bleary eyes.

 

“It’s the principle of the thing. If he starts here, where will it end?”

 

Jared wasn’t one for fatalistic visions of the future and he didn’t care about the government one way or another — he didn’t want anything from them and he took great pains to avoid them wanting anything from him. So he saw Felicia safely to her quarters, and went back to drinking with Chad and Gen. The rest of the crew was off to bed already.

 

In the early hours of the morning, Chad stumbled out of the bar to go looking for company. Jared considered joining him but he was pleasantly buzzed and the _Libby_ was freshly fueled, with a new propulsion block to call her own. Jared would just go to sleep in his baby and then take it out early in the morning.

 

When he woke up, and went to the mess in search of breakfast, he ran into Chad who stumbled through the corridor towards his own cabin. His clothes were skewed and there was a giant hickey blooming on his neck. He was smiling dreamily, either stupid from sex or because he was still drunk. Maybe both.

 

“Jared, my man!” He stumbled against Jared who got a strong whiff of sex, sweat, and booze.

 

“You need a shower.”

 

Chad nodded sagely. “I do.” He stumbled off towards Gen’s cabin, pulled the door open and fell inside.

 

Well, there’d be hell to pay if she found Chad in there before he woke up but that wasn’t Jared’s problem. The chemistry between Chad and Gen had been through the roof from the get go, but instead of fucking, they fought. Jared had given up trying to mediate, nowadays he just let them duke it out. When Chad was drunk, he sometimes forgot that he was supposed to fight with Gen and then he sooner or later found his way into her room, like that was the place he wanted to be anyway. Jared thought the whole thing was ridiculous, but as long as they didn’t start shooting at each other, he wasn’t getting involved.

 

In the mess, he found the professor, who looked like death warmed over. Her face was pale, with dark circles under her pale eyes and even her bright red hair had lost its shine.

 

“I don’t think I can drink as much as you guys can,” she said morosely and carefully sipped a glass of water.

 

Jared suppressed a loud laugh, instead he went over to the cupboard and dug around for the magic powder that Kim mixed together herself that cured every hangover.

 

He poured a spoonful into her glass. “Here, that’ll help.”

 

She drank without hesitation.

 

“So,” Jared said slowly and sat down at the table. “You still wanna stay, after last night?”

 

She noddded. “Yes. I can’t go back and I don’t know what else I’d do. When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of adventures, so, yes. If you’ll have me, I’d love to stay.”

 

Jared grinned. “There’s a free cabin next to Kim’s.”

 

The professor’s face lit up in a bright smile. “Oh my stars, thank you! Thank you— ow.”

 

This time, Jared did laugh when she grabbed her temples.

 

And that was how renowned and recently unemployed archaeology professor Felicia Day came to fly with Captain Jared Padalecki and his ragtag crew on the _Libby_.

 

 


	2. Chapter 1

 

**Two Years Later**

**Galactic Date: 2,050**

  
  


“And you’re sure they’ll be there?” Jared asked skeptically, looking at the spot Felicia pointed out on the star map.

 

They were sitting in the mess, the whole crew present to hear about their next job. Chad and Gen were sitting to his left, Felicia to his right. Felicia had a star map pulled up on her tablet, explaining her plan. Kim was sitting next to her, watching attentively. Osric, their mechanic, had even washed his hands for the occasion. They weren’t a democracy but Jared valued his people’s input.

 

“Rob gave me the coordinates,” Felicia said irritatedly. Even after eleven operations where Jared had bugged her about every detail, she still got annoyed by Jared questioning her expertise every step of the way. Sometimes, Jared questioned her plans just to tease, but this time he really needed to make sure. Felicia was taking them into dangerous territory.

 

“He’s the best researcher out there,” Felicia continued, “so if he says the ship the Loriyan Princess fled on is there, then it’ll be there.”

 

Jared had heard of Rob before but that didn’t mean he would trust him without question. This whole plan rested on a lot of ifs and maybes.

 

“Just because the ship will be there doesn’t mean the flukes will be on it,” Jared said.

 

Jared didn’t mind going on treasure hunts every now and then — as a matter of fact they’d visited all kinds of planets he’d never set foot on before to dig up some old artifact or lost cargo. But he liked decent odds when he was searching in dangerous territories. In the last few years, the Outer Rims had become treacherous for anyone not flying under a Confederation charter. Jared wasn’t a coward, he’d been in his fair share of fights, successfully, most of the time, but he wasn’t suicidal enough to seek out Confederation patrols. The last time they’d only gotten away by fighting their way out. Jared had to knock out the Confederation inspector before he got too close to finding the false walls in the _Libby_ ’s cargo area. So when it had been either assaulting a Confederation officer or going to jail, Jared had chosen the latter.

 

But now there was an outstanding warrant for the _Libby_ — Jared had Osric repaint her for camouflage and had bought new, and very expensive papers, making her the _Mustang_ now — a name that made Jared want to puke — and finding work had become increasingly difficult. They needed money, and they needed it fast. So Felicia had hit up a few old contacts and come up with a giant pay day. If they could pull it off, that was. Jared usually didn’t worry too much, they always made it out somehow, but this would mean a trip to the Third Outer Rim and that was very hot territory right now. He had a right to be wary.

 

Felicia just sighed exasperatedly. “Look, first of all, they’re not called flukes, they’re called _flakes_ , because they look like giant snowflakes. The Loriyans celebrated their most sacred ritual in winter, so they modeled their sacred artifacts after the snow.”

 

“Fluke, flake, whatever.” Jared had never been on a planet where it snowed, so this whole snowflake thing was a very abstract concept to him.

 

Felicia shot him a withering stare. “Secondly, the flakes didn’t turn up anywhere else and, trust me, if someone found them, the whole galaxy would have heard about it. Too many people have been looking for them. So how about you have a little faith and we go looking?”

 

“Faith,” Jared grumbled. But he didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. They needed a lot of credits, and quickly. Osric had told him a few days ago that they’d need to replace the gravitation generator soon and that would be expensive.

 

“We don’t need faith, we have guns,” Gen said languidly.

 

“Easy for you to say, you’re the pilot,” Chad pointed out. “You don’t fight.”

 

“I fight if it’s necessary, which happens when you don’t do your job right. And, what, you’re scared?” Gen arched an eyebrow at him.

 

Chad glared at her. “Fuck you, I’m not scared.”

 

Kim, who’d joined the crew right after Jared bought the ship and had been witness to the whole Gen-Chad frenemy disaster, wasn’t fazed by their fighting. “The patrols have increased a lot in the last year. The Third Outer Rim is dangerous.”

 

Jared was glad that Kim interrupted them. Chad and Gen’s fighting would drive him crazy one day. In his opinion they should just fuck and get it out of the way, but no one listened to him. It wasn’t like he was the captain or anything.

 

“I don’t think our new _Tremendous Leader_ is worried about what a bunch of lousy scavengers are up too.” Felicia’s voice was filled with bitterness.

 

She was still angry with Pellegrino, even though she’d settled in nicely on the _Libby_. But she’d had a career and a passion before and that part of her life was forever destroyed. Jared didn’t blame her. And Pellegrino's new title was just ridiculous. Jared still hadn't managed to say it with a straight face.

 

“Oh, our Tremendous Leader doesn't give a shit about us,” Chad said. “But General Cassidy hates us and she’s got free reign out here now. They picked up two of my friends last week because of  broken running lights. And did I tell you there was chatter this morning they also got Rosey and Tom on some bullshit transport violation? I’m telling you, she’s gonna try to eradicate us all.”

 

“So we should take this job,” Osric said. Usually the mechanic didn’t participate in the planning, but because this would be a dangerous job, Jared had gathered the whole crew. If they did this, he wanted them all bought in and prepared.

 

“The more money we make now, the more freedom we’ll have later, right?” Osric asked, tucking a strand of his dark hair nervously behind his ear. Osric was the most competent mechanic Jared had ever seen but as soon as he was out of the engine room he was an insecure teenager who still missed the home he’d had to leave behind when his family was evicted.

 

But Osric was right. For Jared, the amount of money was worth the risk.

 

“Alright.” Jared clapped his hands and stood. “I’m gonna call Sheppard and see if he can give us a good price. You guys get ready. This will be a quick one. We fly in, we get the flakes, we fly out. Gen, I want four different escape routes out of the Third Rim in case we run into a patrol.”

 

“You want a kick in the nuts with that tone, Captain?”

 

Jared rolled his eyes. Gen didn’t take orders well, which had led to her dishonorable discharge from the Confederation Fleet a few years ago, but she was the best pilot Jared had ever met. He knew the value of talent out here in open space so he indulged most of her quirks. In return, she followed his orders. Mostly.

 

“Just get it done. You know we’d be fucked without you.”

 

With a smug grin, Gen bounced off to the bridge, her long dark hair flowing behind her like a velvet curtain.

 

“That woman,” Chad seethed, glaring after her.

 

Osric stood. “This is why I don’t like to come up here. It’s way too much drama with you guys.”

 

Chad stared after Osric sashaying out of the room with his mouth hanging open.

 

Jared laughed and pulled Chad out of his chair by his collar. “C’mon, we need to get the equipment ready. Kim, I want a full weapons check before we fly out there.”

 

Kim was almost old enough to be Jared’s mother and she’d worked in planetary law enforcement for years before a big agriculture corporation had taken over her planet. She knew the _Libby_ inside out and Jared trusted her with security completely.

 

The Confederation police might be on the prowl but Jared’s crew was solid. They’d gotten away from them before, they’d be fine this time too.

 

 

  
  


“It doesn’t look like much,” Jared said, looking out of the _Libby_ ’s porthole at the damaged ship floating in space. “Is that really the ship?”

 

It was a long-range transport ship, one of the smaller models and, by the looks of it, abandoned a long time ago. Its three cone-shaped propulsion engines at the stern dated it back to over two hundred years ago. Most of these ships had long been taken out of service. There were visible signs of damage to the hull, dents from what looked like asteroid impacts, and a few of the glass viewports were broken. All the hatches remained shut and Jared didn’t think it had been scavenged before. Rob’s calculations, now proven correct, had predicted it dropping out of hyperspace, into a traveling asteroid field here, on a barely traveled route far off the regular trade routes just a few months ago. By the looks of it, Jared and his crew were the first to find it. The transporter was peacefully suspended, motionless, outside of any gravitational influence.

 

Felicia was already pulling on her space suit, having no trouble fitting her slim body into the rigid suit. The zippers and stiff sleeves were another matter — her red ponytail bounced up and down as she struggled with the upper part of the suit. From what Jared had gathered she’d mostly done planetary digs during her archaeological career and those were usually the type she proposed to Jared’s crew. They’d only scavenged another ship once and Felicia had done the same hopping dance with her suit back then too.

 

The speakers cracked. “It’s definitely an old Dragonfly,” Osric said over the comm. He was a walking encyclopedia on anything that had ever traveled through space. “Three cone propulsion engine, 30,000 sm flight range, big loading plank at the belly, small cockpit and the escape pods in two rows on top of the ship. Which are all still there, by the way.”

 

So the crew, or what was left of them, was either still on board or had been taken off by another ship. Jared just hoped that if they’d left, the artifacts were still there.

 

He followed Felicia's example and pulled his own spacesuit on. The suits were older models, the gray material snug and inflexible, but they worked. His suit was the biggest they had on the ship, but it was still a tight fit for his broad shoulders.

 

“I still don’t get why Rob’s not here then. Sheppard is gonna pay us five thousand credits for just one of these flakes. If I were Rob I’d make sure it gets handed over and I get the money.”

 

“Bookworm, remember?” Felicia’s voice came over the internal suit comm because she’d already put on her bulbous helmet, grinning at Jared through the glass visor. “I honestly think he’s scared of open space.”

 

Jared snorted. He couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. As a matter of fact he got planet fever whenever they stayed too long in one place. He’d been born on a spaceship, grew-up on a spaceship and he intended to spend the rest of his life on a spaceship, the _Libby_ specifically, until the day he died, with the freedom of the galaxy just one engine punch away.

 

But freedom was expensive so Jared was willing to take the risk of scavenging in the Third Outer Rim.

 

Carefully, he tucked his hair back behind his ears. Nothing was more annoying than a strand of hair tickling his nose when he had no way to push it back. He really should have Osric cut his hair soon. Their mechanic was just as handy with a pair of scissors as he was with a wrench. Inside the helmet, the air was actually fresher than the ship’s slightly metallic atmosphere but it wouldn’t last for too long. He made a mental note to put some of the money aside to get new filters for the _Libby_ ’s oxygen system.

 

“Okay, let’s do this, people. Chad, you got the comm?”

 

“When have I ever not?” Chad asked and Jared chose not to answer.

 

Even though he’d had to drag Chad out of a woman’s bed more often than not to get them out of port in time, he was always there when it counted. Granted, he’d fought more than once in his underwear or without his shirt on, but he was always there to cover Jared’s back. Which was great, especially because Jared wasn’t always fully clothed on a hasty retreat either.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Just keep your eyes on the scanner,” Jared ordered. He reached for a heavy tool belt hanging from the wall next to the airlock and fastened it around his waist.

 

“You know I will,” Chad said, “Because I _always_ do.”

 

“And it’s not like I’m not here,” Gen chimed in over the comm.

 

Chad grumbled something belligerently under his breath. Jared let out a long suffering sigh. These two.

 

“Guys. How about we do our job?” he ground out, “and get out of this fucking quadrant?”

 

“Right on,” Chad said cheerily. “I’m looking forward to getting back to our much more reputable occupation of smuggling anyway.”

 

With a laugh, Jared hit the button to open airlock B. The two halves of the door slid aside and Jared and Felicia stepped into the narrow lock. Behind them, the door shut again. They hooked the long, thick safety ropes to the carabiners on their belts and then Jared opened the outer door of the lock.

 

Slowly, Jared and Felicia floated outside, towards the old ship. Out here, they could talk to each other over the helmet’s internal comm system, but maintaining a constant connection to the ship took too much juice, so he had to call back in to talk to Chad. Might be better, considering some of the conversations between Chad and Gen he’d overheard. Either way, speed was of the essence. Jared should really invest in some new spacesuits too, before the current ones could crap out on him in open space. He shot the Libby a grumpy look. His ship had been costing him a shit ton of money the past few years. Activating the mini boosters in the gloves of his suit, Jared steered himself towards the underside of the ship where they had spotted the biggest hole in one of the broken windows.

 

Felicia followed, progressing hand over hand on Jared’s line.

 

When Jared reached the ship, he carefully pulled himself through the broken window panel, avoiding shards of broken glass still stuck in the frame. The inside of the ship was covered in old dull metal plates that reflected the light from his helmet in creepily shimmering tones.

 

Quickly, he fastened a magnetic loop to the inside of the ship and snapped their guidelines in. Inside the ship they’d just be in the way, and with the short range magnets in the suits’s shoes and gloves, they’d be able to hold on whenever they needed to.

 

“Which way?” Felicia asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

 

“Why are you whispering?”

 

“I don’t know. It’s just creepy. I mean, we could stumble across corpses, right?”

 

“Maybe.” Jared wasn’t keen on it, but he didn’t mind either. Without oxygen, bodies didn’t decompose in space. Unless the crew had died long before the ship’s hull was breached there’d be no decomposition, and now, with the ship’s atmosphere destroyed and invaded by the cold vacuum of space, they’d only find frozen bodies.

 

Since no one knew what had happened to the crew, they might find bodies, or they might not. All Rob had told them was that the Loriyan Princess had left her planet shortly before the end of the Third Intergalactic War over two hundred years ago and had been picked up by a Dragonfly II transport ship, heading towards the Second Outer Rim. That was all anybody knew. The ship had evaded captors and would-be rescuers alike and had vanished from all radar. Rob had calculated its trajectory, had studied space movements from two hundred years ago and had worked out which asteroid field it must have hidden in. By all accounts it was a desperate suicide maneuver, and until Jared had seen the ship with his own eyes, he hadn’t thought they’d made it. By the looks of it, the ship had been damaged badly by the asteroids, though the propulsion system still looked functional and there were no signs of an explosion. The inner part of the ship should have been sealed off against the hull breaches, so why the ship hadn’t continued to the nearest port was a mystery.

 

Jared was sure Felicia would love to figure out what had happened here, and it wasn’t like he wasn’t curious himself but they didn’t have the time. Pellegrino had started his presidency with a crusade against everybody opposing him by declaring he’d ‘make the galaxy safe again’. Patrols of Confederation Police had tripled in number. Under the new unity laws enacted to prevent sedition and insurgency, every vessel could be hailed and inspected at any time. Several new high ranking officers, including General Cassidy who commanded the entire police force in the Third Outer Rim, had declared war on all smugglers and unsanctioned trade. More and more materials had been declared Confederation Transport Only, and they’d become so scarce on the outer planets, smuggling had reached an all time high. It made for good business, but it was also a risky business. All the more reason to get out of here quickly and go back to the Fourth and Fifth Outer Rims where they usually conducted their operations.

 

“We need to hurry,” Jared reminded Felicia, who was examining the contents of several compartments. “The flakes are not going to be in the main cargo bay.”

 

If legend was true, the Loriyans built their holy temple on five foundations, each one of the large underground pillars decorated with a sacred object — a flat, five-spiked flake made out of a translucent mineral only found on Loriya. Loriya was one of the earliest planets settled after the big emigration from the First Earth. It was the only planet in its star system to be successfully settled, on a far corner of the First Outer Rim and removed from all the other early settlements. Loriya had thrived and developed their own set of laws and religion. Their desire to stand apart from the Confederation had eventually led to the First and Third Intergalactic Wars. Today, Loriya was nothing but a deserted, overgrown ruin, bereft of their sacred idols who had supposedly been brought off planet during the war, with the last two rescued by the Princess before her people and her home were finally destroyed.

 

Jared didn’t believe in the sanctity and even less in the magical powers the flakes were supposed to contain — but he did believe in the money he’d get in exchange for them. Which was a lot. Five thousand credits would get them fuel and supplies for years. It would ensure they could be picky about jobs until the current political situation calmed down.

 

Felicia followed Jared who made his way towards the private quarters. “We should split up,” he said. “We need to search the private rooms. The Princess would have kept the artifacts close by.”

 

Even through the helmet’s convex visor, he could see the anxiety on Felicia's face.

 

“We’ve been on digs before, why the scared face?” Jared asked.

 

“Because there was more light, more people! I wasn’t floating in space, with only a thin suit to protect me from instant death.”

 

Jared rolled his eyes. Planet-dwellers. “Fine.”

 

Together, they floated through the ship. Jared pulled himself along the railings and pipes, not willing to drain the suit’s energy more than he had to. The ship seemed to be in good condition. Apart from the broken viewports and the dents in the hull, there was no sign of any malfunction. The mess was empty, just as were all the corridors.

 

They reached the hallway with the private quarters to find all the doors open. One after another, they ducked into the cabins to check.

 

They didn’t find any bodies. They found nothing of interest, for that matter; just a few clothes, but no personal effects, no keepsakes. This was highly unusual for people who spent a lot of time in space, like the crew of a long-range transporter would. Jared knew how people lived out in space and this wasn’t it. The ship looked truly abandoned, as if the crew and the Princess had left it of their own free will, with enough time to pack and plan their exit. Jared tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut but there was no way they would’ve left the flakes behind if the Princess had even been here. Jared hadn’t found any sign of their royal passenger either, no fine clothes or expensive equipment. Great. That was what he got for trusting strangers.

 

Scanning the empty drawers and cupboards, Felicia came to the same conclusion. “There’s nothing left behind. Anything personal or of value has been taken. Did you see any sign of struggle?”

 

No broken doors, no scorch marks, no blood spatter. “It looks like they left peacefully,” Jared said angrily. They’d come all this way for nothing.

 

Somehow the princess and the crew had hitched a ride with another ship. When and why didn’t really matter. They were gone and Jared and his crew wouldn’t get paid. _Fuck_.

 

“Seems like your buddy was wrong,” he said grimly.

 

“We don’t know that,” Felicia said. “We haven’t even searched the whole ship yet.”

 

She had a point, so while Felicia continued with the personal quarters, Jared searched the rest of the ship but he didn’t find anything of value. He wasn’t sure what he was hoping for but there must be _something_ on this ship he could sell. He had fuel to buy and repairs to pay for. So he checked every nook and cranny that could have been used as a smuggling hideout and just when he was ready to give up, he finally hit pay dirt. The ship had been transporting several crates of impalium, a rare and expensive metal needed in hyperdrive generators. If they could find a good fence for this, they’d be set for a year. It wasn’t as good as the flakes but it was a lot better than nothing.

 

And it didn't make a lick of sense that someone would pick up the crew and leave the impalium behind. It made the back of his neck prickle. Something was really wrong here.

 

“They left their cargo,” he told Felicia. She was still searching the rooms, while Jared had taken over searching the cargo bay and now the engine room.

 

“I found a Loriyan royal pin,” she answered and her voice was excited. “The princess was definitely on this ship.”

 

“But she’s not anymore, is she?” Grumbling, Jared checked the engine. He might not have Osric’s keen eye but he understood enough about them to see that this engine was undamaged. After checking the readings the reason was clear. The ship had run out of fuel.

 

“They left the ship with the engine running,” Jared spoke, more to himself than to Felicia. This was getting stranger by the second. “It ran on until the fuel was gone but it was still functional when they left. Why? And how?”

 

“I don’t know,” Felicia answered. “But the medicine bay is still fully stocked so I doubt it was an illness.”

 

Pressing a button on his control bracelet, he opened a line back to the _Libby_. “The ship’s completely fine, but all the people are gone.”

 

“Weird,” Chad commented. “Did you find the artifacts?”

 

“No.  But I found enough impalium to make this trip worth our while anyway.”

 

“Excellent,” Gen said. “We can keep a little for us and sell the rest to Freddie Weirdeyes. Do you need help carrying it?”

 

“Yeah. Tell Kim to get ready, I’m just gonna check out the bridge and then we’re done here.”

 

“Hey!” Felicia had apparently tapped into the ship line. “I’m not through with all the stuff in the private cabins.”

 

“I know you weren’t with us the last time we ran into the Confederation police, but trust me, it’s no fun,” Jared told her. “Still no sign of a patrol?”

 

“All’s good here,” Chad said.

 

Jared switched off the connection again and made his way towards the bridge. Felicia was muttering into his ear that they could still find clues, something, but Jared tuned her out. He’d reached the door to the bridge and found it sealed. Usually, a bridge could only be sealed from the inside. It seemed Jared might find a crew member after all.

 

He hadn’t been able to see into it from the outside because the glass, while still intact, had cracked and hidden the cockpit behind a glassy spider’s web.

 

He took his laser drill, usually a heavy object, now floating weightlessly along his hip and started cutting the door open.

 

When he was finally through, he pushed it open carefully. The bridge was empty.

 

“What the fuck?”

 

“What?” Felicia asked excitedly. “What have you found?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“Not oh,” Jared mumbled, and pulled himself into the bridge.

 

Like everything else inside the ship, it was undamaged. Two chairs behind the control panel and a bench running along the port side of the wall, fine layer of dust on every surface. The gray dust had covered the room in a spiderweb-like wrapping, everything appearing like it was fading away. It gave Jared the creeps. He concentrated on searching the walls until he spotted the panel from the ventilation system. The thin bars were covered in the dust. Something inside the ventilation system had broken off and the debris had been blasted into the sealed cockpit.

 

It didn’t explain what had happened to the crew. Maybe, if Jared could activate the computer, and access the captain’s log — he stopped halfway to the controls.

 

To his left, something was lying on the floor in front of the bench. It was covered by dust, but it looked like a irregular shaped disc. It could be anything. Really, it could be a piece of equipment, clothing even, maybe a bag…

 

With two quick strokes of his arms, Jared was floating above the object and he maneuvered himself to the ground, his space suit’s slight magnetism keeping him oriented towards the floor.

 

“What did you find?” Felicia’s excited voice startled him and when he looked up he saw her floating inside the doorway. “Oh my stars. You found it, didn’t you?”

 

“I don’t know. And I still haven’t found the crew members.”

 

Felicia gripped his shoulder and pulled herself down. She’d never really learned to move in weightlessness like Jared could.

 

“You know, I’ve been thinking about that. The crew, I mean.”

 

Jared looked at her. Her tone was off, slow and thoughtful, but she wasn’t really talking to him. She spoke like she was thinking out loud, elucidating a scientific problem.

 

“I don’t really believe in all the magical legends from the early days of the galaxy. You know, how the people from the First Earth found all those magical objects, how they learned to speak prophecies. But the secrets of the universe are endless and Loriya is supposed to be one of the most mysterious places of all.”

 

“I thought no one goes to Loriya anymore because its moon was destroyed and the pieces have formed a    debris field around the entire planet.”

 

Felicia tilted her head. “Have you learned nothing about archaeologists from me? Some of us can get a little... obsessed. People have tried to go there. Most of them didn't make it but I've seen pictures from the one successful expedition. If there was ever a place in the new galaxy where you could find sacred flakes with magical powers, it would be Loriya.”

 

“We don’t even know if this is a flake,” Jared said impatiently and reached for the object.

 

“NO!” Felicia gripped his wrist with surprising strength. The sudden movement stirred up the dust which floated above the floor. Beneath it, a shimmering form was revealed.

 

It looked almost exactly like the one picture Jared had seen of the sacred flakes — Loriyans had always been protective of their sacred space, so only one picture of one flake existed — except the symbol engraved in the middle was different.

 

“Don’t touch it.” Felicia was back to whispering. “Jared, this ship was sealed and the crew is gone. What if the stories about the flakes are true and they used another flaake to transport them somewhere? If we touch it, who knows what might happen.”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jared said but his words were lacking conviction. The crew was gone, without any explanation and here, in the sealed bridge, they’d left behind one of the flakes. There was, of course, a logical explanation, he was just being silly, but the whole thing gave him an uneasy feeling. He blamed it on the ship. This old hull, with its strangely reflective material, gave him the creeps.

 

“What are the flakes’ supposed powers again?” he asked, just to make sure.

 

“One takes you to the place you want to go, one takes you to the place where you’re needed most,” Felicia recited in a quiet, heavy voice. “One takes you to your heart’s desire, even though you might not know what that is. One takes you to the beginning, and one to the end. They are only to be used in times of dire need, because they destruct when used.”

 

“What does that even mean?”

 

“I’m not sure. There’s a lot of theorizing, metaphysics, philosophy and mathematics that are not really my area of expertise but I can give you the bibliography for the literature on Loriyan flakes and you can read it yourself.”

 

Disbelievingly, Jared looked from the flake to Felicia. She didn’t notice, her eyes fixed on the flake. She’d gone into full scholar mode.

 

Jared shook his head and turned back to the flake. “So which one is this?”

 

“I don’t know. The only one ever pictured is the one with the symbol for your heart’s desire, but that’s not it.”

 

It didn’t matter anyway. The whole magic flake schtick was ridiculous. Jared pressed the button for the ship line. “Chad, we’re coming back. Tell Kim to suit up, she’s going to help with the impalium, and then we're out of here.”

 

“I don’t think we have time for that,” Chad said, and his voice was hard. “A ship just showed up on the radar and it’s coming straight for us.”

 

“Fuck.” Jared took a deep breath. “Confederation?”

 

“I’d bet my dick on it.”

 

So Chad was sure.

 

“Okay, we’re coming back now. Prepare everything for immediate hyperdrive, somewhere far away from any Confederation outposts.”

 

“Drall system it is,” Gen said.

 

The Drall system was a fragmented system of sparsely populated small planets with even smaller, even sparser populated moons, that made for excellent hiding places.

 

“Alright, let’s move it.” Jared reached for the flake again, and again Felicia tried to stop him but she was too late.

 

Jared’s gloved hand gripped the flake and lifted it from the ground. Nothing happened.

 

“See?” he told Felicia, shaking the flake. “No magic.”

 

Then the flake started to vibrate in his hand, a soft light glow emanating from it and filling the cockpit.

 

“Shit!” Jared tried to drop the flake but it was like his hand was glued to it and he couldn’t pry his fingers away.

 

“I hate when obscure legends about old artifacts turn out to be true,” Felicia said woefully.

 

The flake’s light was expanding into a glowing ball that engulfed Jared and Felicia. The space around them was humming. Jared felt like it was resounding through of all his bones, shaking his body from the inside out. Then he was pulled forward and he imagined this was what it must feel like to be ripped out of the safe body of a spaceship and into the cold vastness of the universe.

 

He had to close his eyes against the blinding light. He screwed them shut even tighter when his usually iron proof stomach lurched and heaved when he started to spin. Like the water flushed down a drain, he was whirled around until he thought he couldn’t take it anymore. His body was going to fly apart at the seams, like the innards of a spaceship when you breached the hull. Then, with a blinding flash of light that he could see even through his closed eyelids, it just stopped. Jared was weightless again.

 

He opened his eyes and fought the urge to puke his brains out. He was still inside the cockpit, his hands empty. Felicia was next to him, her hand still gripping his arm. Her face was pale as she stared at him with huge eyes.

 

Jared tried to get his breathing under control. He only now realized that he was panting and his heart was beating panic-quick in his chest.

 

“You okay?” he asked Felicia.

 

Felicia nodded once, then shook her head. “I don’t… what just happened?”

 

They were still in the ship. Jared turned on his axis to look for the flake, and froze. Where the windshield of the bridge formerly had been a spider-webbed glass, Jared now looked out into space. Except for a few shards sticking out of the frame, the glass was gone. So was the dust that had covered the floor.

 

Jared pressed his control bracelet. “Chad?”

 

There was no response.

 

“You guys okay over there?”

 

Again, no response. Jared was feeling cold in his well-tempered suit.

 

“ _Libby_ , come in.”

 

Static was the only sound coming over the comm. No. If he had missed the attack of the patrol because of that fucking flake... Jared sprang in motion, hurling himself out of the broken window. He gripped onto the ship’s ridges, carefully anchoring himself in open space having become second nature. Then he moved around the bulk of the cockpit and he saw nothing. There was nothing there. The place where the _Libby_ had hovered was empty.

 

Panicked, he looked around. There was nothing but the vast darkness, interspersed by the dim light of distant stars. No _Libby_ , and no Confederation ship anywhere. The panic settled. No ship in sight, stranded on a vessel that had been dried out for two hundred years. Even if he could squeeze some energy out of the backup generator after so much time, there was no one around to hear them. They might as well be alone in space.

 

 


	3. Chapter 2

 

Jensen was going through the recent reports from Camp Blue. Supplies were low and if they wanted a chance to get people through the harsh winter, they’d have to stock up. Maybe it would be better to relocate most people to one of the other, more self-sustaining camps and only keep the necessary personnel on Daroth to run Camp Blue. Jensen realized the symbolic importance of Daroth but it was still an idiotic idea to maintain a resistance base on a planet where you couldn’t go outside for three months of the year. Especially now, when supplies were low and it didn’t look like any rich planets would join the resistance in the future. No one on the council liked to admit it, but they’d need to start rationing supplies throughout the resistance and they would need to start with Daroth.

 

He was crunching the numbers on evacuation costs versus supply chain when Chris called him over the comm.

 

“Captain to the bridge.”

 

Jensen sighed. What now?

 

Chris’ voice was urgent. “You wanna see this.”

 

Jensen was up immediately, the info tab left on his desk. He rushed out of his cabin without putting on his jacket and jogged through the narrow corridors to the _Colt’s_ bridge.

 

Chris, his pilot, and Dani, his first lieutenant, were standing in front of the radar panel, eyes fixed on the screen in concentration.

 

“What?”

 

“The scanners picked up on the remnants of an energy surge in the middle of nowhere. It’s nowhere near any flight route, no Empire, no smuggling, no anything,” Chris explained and showed Jensen on the star map.

 

“What kind of energy surge?”

 

“I thought distress call,” Dani said, “but it doesn’t really fit. We ran a spectral analysis but it’s nothing we’ve ever seen before. I thought we should go check it out, but it looks like someone’s beaten us to the punch.”

 

On the radar, Jensen could see a ship hovering in space.

 

“Do we know them?”

 

Dani nodded grimly. “Oh yeah. It’s a Knight’s ship.”

 

Jensen sneered. The Knights of Hell, as they called themselves had splintered off from the resistance over two decades ago. You’d think with a common enemy, you’d find a way to fight together but Jensen, and many others, refused to work with people who tortured and murdered, not making a distinction between soldier or civilian. They were fighting this fucking rebellion for the people, not to annihilate everything on their way to the prize. It was why most resistance fighters had taken to calling them hellhounds.

 

“They see us yet?”

 

“Stealth mode’s still on,” Dani said. “And we’re out of line of sight for another few miles.”

 

“So.” Chris drew out the word, and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his brown, almost shoulder-length hair. “You know I’d love nothing better to whup their asses, but we do have orders to not engage with them for the time being. I clearly remember Beaver telling you to ignore them and focus on the important things.”

 

“Ignore them, my ass,” Jensen said and leaned forward on the control board, pulling up the spectral analysis of the energy surge on screen. “I know Jim thinks we can find common ground with the Knights eventually, that they’ll rejoin us. But that’ll never happen. I told Jim and the whole fucking council that the Knights will never stop raiding peaceful planets. But sure, let’s ignore that.”

 

It was an old fight and even though it still made him livid, Jensen didn’t have a problem looking at the analysis during his rant.

 

The analysis, which didn’t make any sense. The surge was mineral in nature, no trace of fuel or any other kind of man-made ignition. He didn’t even know that mineral could surge.

 

“What are the traces of metal?” He pointed at the almost insignificant readings of the analysis.

 

Chris leaned forward, then pulled up the screen again. “Wait, there’s another ship.”

 

“What?” Dani stepped up behind him to lean over his shoulder. “Why didn’t that show up?”

 

Chris shook his head in confusion. “Because it’s as dead as Slithorian gumbax after a pint of Shooka schnaps.” He turned the sensor towards the ship almost completely hidden by the Knight’s vessel. “Look at it, there’s no oxygen level, no energy reading, no gravitational field, no nothing.”

 

“Did the Knights put it out of commission?” Jensen asked tightly. Highway robbery wasn’t beyond them and they were constantly struggling to feed and arm themselves. There wasn’t a lot of support for them in the galaxy.

 

“I don’t think so. Anything powerful enough to completely take a ship out of commission leaves a trace and this sure as shit wasn’t the surge we read. Unless of course, they found some kind of super weapon.”

 

It was highly unlikely, but not completely out of the realm of the possible. The universe was a vast and mysterious place, unexplored except for the little galaxy the human race called their home. Jensen wasn’t religious, but he wasn’t ignorant enough to think they knew everything about the universe.

 

“It doesn't really matter what it is,” he decided. “There’s a ship and the Knights are taking it over. Whatever made that energy surge is powerful and I don’t want it in their hands.” He turned to Dani. “Think we can take them?”

 

Dani grinned and started pulling her long red hair together in a tight bun. Chris called it her Fight-Do. She knew Jensen’s question was rhetorical.

 

She pressed the comm button for a ship wide announcement. “Everyone to battle stations. We’re gonna have a chat with a bunch of Hellhounds and we’re gonna be ready for whatever fuckery they come up with. Except for DJ, who is going to stay in his bed. Seriously, Sam is not going to splint your leg _again_.”

 

Then she straightened up and did a check of the blaster gun she always carried at her hip, no matter if they were going into battle or scheduled for three days of undisturbed flight. Jensen mirrored her. They were living in a war zone and he couldn’t remember the day he’d gotten out of bed and putting on his weapon’s belt hadn’t been part of getting dressed.

 

“Chris, you got the bridge. No one gets in unless I say so.”

 

“You got it.” Chris closed the door when Jensen and Dani left and behind him, Jensen could hear the safety lock click.

 

Outside, Traci, Sebastian, and Richard were waiting for them.

 

“Sebastian, I want you in the nest, Traci, you’re gonna guard the ship and keep yourself ready for backup, Rich, you’re with me and Dani. And where the fuck is Alona?” Jensen bellowed out his orders while they were walking towards the boarding hatch, his crew falling in step behind him.

 

Alona was already at the weapon’s storage, pulling out blasters and flash grenades.

 

“You said Hellhounds, so I thought I’d prepare adequately.” She grinned, showing her teeth. The bloodthirsty expression clashed with her young, innocent-looking features. With her long blond hair and big brown bambi eyes, Alona looked like the definition of harmless. Until she gave you that smile and then even the densest fucker knew trouble was coming.

 

“Just don’t blow them up before we figure out why they stopped,” Jensen ordered. “Nobody shoots before I give the order.”

 

“So we’re not allowed to shoot them if they just kill you?” Rich asked in a conversational tone. “Cause that out there looks like Alaina’s ship,” he said, pointing to the ship slowly coming into view. Now visible were three bright red stripes painted along the hull. “And if I remember correctly, the last time we ran into her she promised to eat your intestines with a spoon the next time she saw you.”

 

Jensen gave him a sour look but Dani laughed. “Ah, true love.”

 

Jensen ignored his crew’s ribbing and spoke into his wrist comm. “Chris, hail them and patch me through. Chad, make sure they can’t get away.”

 

A low buzzing took hold of the ship as his mechanic Chad turned on the tractor beam. Mechanic was a bit of an ill-fitting term, though Chad preferred it. But Chad was much more than a simple mechanic. Taking the time to rescue Chad from the Empire on an intelligence mission had been one of the most fruitful decisions Jensen ever made. Chad was a technical genius, a one in a million kind of guy, and since he owed his life to Jensen for taking a blaster shot for him, he’d refused all other resistance offers for his service. He’d serve on Jensen’s ship and on Jensen’s ship only. He’d outfitted the _Colt_ with all kind of weapons and machinery and one of them was the tractor beam. It was stronger than that of most Empire ships even, as long as the target didn’t exceed a regular transporters size at least. The Knight’s ship didn’t. They didn’t have a chance of getting away now, though they could still do some damage.

 

His comm blinked yellow, indicating an open line to the other vessel.

 

“Alaina, is that you?” Jensen made his voice saccharine sweet.

 

A short pause, then, “That’s still Captain Alaina to you, sweetheart. Now, if you wanted to see me that badly, you could have just called. No need to use force.” She laughed, deep and throaty. “Unless you’re into that, of course.”

 

Rich fake-gagged and Dani made a disgusted face. “Such an attractive woman, such horrible pick-up lines.”

 

“Well, I wasn’t sure if you wouldn't just hightail it out of here like the last time, so I thought better safe than sorry.”

 

Another pause, Jensen assumed an angry tone. “You’re not still mad that I helped that cargo ship escape, are you? You know the rules, no attacks on civilians.”

 

“There are no civilians anymore,” she hissed. “If you’re not against the Confederate Empire, you’re on their side. When will you fucking realize that?”

 

“This is the point where we agree to disagree.”

 

“Fine. Then why hail us? Miss me so much?”

 

“You wish. You picked up a ship out there and I need to make sure it’s not another load of innocent people you’re harassing.”

 

“There are no people here,” Alaina said calmly. “The ship’s been stranded out here for years, we’re just looking for reusable parts. And when it comes to scavenging, first come first serve, honey.”

 

If that was the way she wanted to play it…

 

“You have five seconds to tell me what you found on that ship or I come over to take a look.”

 

Alaina laughed into the comm. “Oooh, I’m so scared. Look, honey, I—”

 

“Help! Help us!” A female voice, barely audible, came over the comm.

 

Then Jensen heard the sounds of a commotion, someone grunting, a thud — soft hitting hard, the sound of a body crashing into a wall — and the connection cut off.

 

“I need to know what’s going on over there. Chris, Sebastian, you got a visual?”

 

“The thermal scanner picked up some movement,” Sebastian said.

 

“Well?” Jensen asked impatiently.

 

“Can’t be sure but if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say they have at least two prisoners and one of them just started a fight.”

 

“And now?”

 

“Looks quiet again.”

 

The yellow light was glowing again, Chris must have fixed the connection to the other ship.

 

“Alaina,” Jensen said into the comm, and he didn’t try to keep the anger out of his voice.

 

“This is none of your business,” she replied harshly. “You come over, and you’re just as bad as the EE.”

 

Jensen ground his jaw. He knew Alaina just wanted to rile him up, but comparing him to the Empire Echelon, the fighting force that exclusively did the Emperor’s bidding, was a low blow, even for her. “You have people on board who don’t want to be there. You have five seconds to invite us in or we’re coming over.”

 

Alaina didn’t answer, but she didn’t need to.

 

Jensen saw their ship turn, bringing their guns into the position.

 

“It’s go time!” he yelled, all the command his crew needed. They’d been flying and fighting together for years, they knew their jobs.

 

The Knights fired her guns at them but the _Colt’s_ shields were up and they held, even though the impact still shook their ship.

 

Almost at the same time, three red laser blasts shot from the top gun of the _Colt_ , hitting the Knight’s ship’s port engine with surgical precision. The ship was instantly unmaneuverable and started spinning on its own axis before the pilot powered down the remaining engine. That was the trouble with flying without a shield up, but the Knights had burned so many bridges in the galaxy, they didn’t have many allies. They relied on stealing and coercion for most of their supplies, food or tech. This ship wasn’t in good condition, and easy pickings for Jensen’s crew.

 

“Chris, get us closer, we’re going over.”

 

They readied their guns as Chris maneuvered the _Colt_ into position so their boarding hatch could latch onto the Knight’s ship. Jensen and his fighters took position behind the small shields Jensen had designed to protect them during initial boarding.

 

He opened the doors, and immediately, the knights opened fire on them. His people fought back through the slits in the shields and then Alona threw the first flash grenade into the corridor. There were screams from the other ship and under the cover of the smoke, Jensen and his crew boarded.

 

It was a short and intense fight. The Knights pulled back, Jensen and his crew pushed forward. When the knights sealed a door, Dani blasted it open. They split up then, Jensen and Alona going for the bridge while Dani and Rich and went after the rest of the crew. Occasionally, the ship shook from a blast impact. Sebastian kept on firing from the nest, taking out the rest of the ship’s engine and its canons.

 

The Knights were flying a common freight transport, outfitted with few weapons and Jensen was familiar with the design. He made straight for the cockpit, shooting two Knights in the process, Alona covering his back. The door to the cockpit was sealed, but he’d packed a few of Dani’s homemade door openers as she called them and with a precisely directed blast, the door was thrown open.

 

The pilot and another Knight dove behind the helm and started shooting. There was no way to get in there without getting hit, so Jensen shot at the ceiling while Alona fired at the helm to keep the two men in check. Eventually, parts of the ceiling collapsed and the Knights were buried under it. Jensen and Alona rushed inside and dragged them out of the debris before they could make a dash for their guns.

 

Jensen activated the comm system. “I got your bridge, Alaina. It’s over.”

 

It wasn’t Alaina who answered but Dani. “We have a problem.”

 

 

 

 

When Jensen got down to the mess, Alona in charge of their prisoners and the bridge, he saw what the problem was.

 

Dani and Rich had managed to overwhelm most of Alaina’s crew but Alaina held a redheaded woman dressed in a space suit against her body as a shield. The woman was wearing neither helmet nor gloves and Alaina was pressing a gun to the underside of her unprotected jaw, the barrel deeply pushed into the soft flesh. “You want to save the hostage?” she asked. “Then you don’t move and let me go in my shuttle.”

 

“You hurt her, you’ll be smiling from the back of your head.”

 

The speaker was a tall, broad-shouldered man Jensen had never seen before. And he’d remember someone with such a commanding presence. His hair was almost as long as Chris’ and all over the place. He was dressed in an old, bulky spacesuit, just like the woman was wearing and he was holding a blaster pointed at Alaina with a steady hand. This was not going to end well.

 

Jensen took a step forward to get everyone’s attention. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re gonna put your gun down, now. No one’s dying today.”

 

If Jensen killed one of the Knight’s leaders, the animosity between them and the resistance might turn into a full on war that nobody needed. And Jensen didn’t like to kill people unless he absolutely had to. Alaina deserved to be put on trial and spend the rest of her life in jail, but he wouldn’t shoot her in cold blood.

 

The guy’s head snapped around to Jensen and he shot him a disbelieving look. “Yeah, no offense, man, but I’m going to put my gun down when she puts hers down.”

 

“We’re not in kiddie day-care,” Rich said. “The captain tells you to put your gun down, then that’s what you do.”

 

“I’m my own captain, thanks,” the guy said, eyes back on Alaina. “Now you guys clearly have some sort of disagreement going on here, but Felicia and I aren’t part of that, so I’d suggest you let her go, and we leave you to it.”

 

He wasn’t wearing any Empire insignia and neither was the woman, Felicia, but that didn’t mean anything. They could be spies, they could be scavengers, they could be anyone really. The question was where they’d come from and what they were doing out here, without a functioning ship anywhere in sight. Or maybe the old ship out there was only a ruse? Either way, Jensen couldn’t just let them go.

 

“And how do you intend to leave, exactly?” Jensen asked, to test him and to buy time. Now that they were in a stalemate, Traci should be on her way over.

 

Alaina was watching their exchange attentively, but her grip on the hostage didn’t slip.

 

“On the ship out there, obviously,” the man said, his eyes back on Alaina and Felicia, completely focused on his companion.

 

“That ship hasn’t flown in years,” Dani said, gun pointed at Alaina. Her free hand was hovering over her left hip, ready to draw her other gun should the stranger become a threat to any of them.

 

“We’ll make it work,” the guy said stubbornly.

 

For the first time, Felicia spoke, straining to talk through her teeth because of Alaina’s gun. “Don’t be stupid, Jared. We can’t go back.”

 

The guy, Jared, stared at her in something akin to horror. “What do you mean, we can’t go back?”

 

“It’s gone, isn’t it?” she said in a whisper, her face desperate. “Why do you think no one ever used it before? It’s a one-time ticket.”

 

Jensen had no idea what they were talking about, it didn’t make any sense.

 

Jared immediately shook his head. “No. No, there’s a way. Fuck, we don’t even know where we—”

 

He broke off, looking at Felicia in shock.

 

“It’s not _where_ ,” she said. “At least, I don’t think it is. I mean, look around.”

 

Jensen didn’t know what Jared saw when he did, but something must have dawned on him because his face went white. “You’re fucking kidding, right?”

 

“Look at the gun, Jared.”

 

Jared took a closer look the gun he must have taken off Alaina’s crew. His jaw was working and his knuckles were almost white when he focused his aim on Alaina again. Whatever shock he was under, it didn’t stop him from facing the situation.

 

“Alright, that’s it,” Jared said harshly. “I have other shit to deal with right now. Let her go, or I’ll kill you.”

 

Felicia closed her eyes and mumbled something that Jensen assumed was a prayer. He couldn’t let the situation escalate.

 

Jensen activated his comm. “Traci, how much longer?”

 

A jolt went through the ship, then Traci answered. “Done.”

 

“Alright.” Jensen turned to Alaina and slowly started walking towards her, one hand stretched out towards Jared signalling him to stand down. “Traci just disconnected your shuttle. It’s floating off as we speak. There’s nothing in the vicinity an escape pod could reach, so there’s nowhere for you to go. Let go of the hostage and I’ll hand you over to the council. You put up a fight, I have every excuse to shoot you.”

 

Her mouth twisted into an ugly line, but she threw her gun to the ground and pushed Felicia away from her. “Fine. You win. This time,” she added with a seductive smile when he clasped handcuffs on her. She’d always been a survivor. Giving up didn’t mean anything to her if it gave her another chance to get away later.

 

Jensen rolled his eyes and waved Rich over. “Lock her up.”

 

Rich nodded and bowed exaggeratedly at Alaina. “After you, my queen.”

 

She squinted her eyes at him at the mockery of the title the Knights used for her, but she was too proud to be dragged, so she strode with her head held high toward the _Colt_.

 

After they were out of sight, Jensen checked back on the others.

 

Felicia had run straight for Jared but they separated after a short hug. Not lovers, Jensen thought, and not used to casual intimacy. And yet Jared had been determined to save her. Crew members maybe. If so, Jensen wondered where the rest of them were and what the fuck they were doing out here in the first place.

 

Dani seemed to wonder the same and she must have come to some threatening conclusions because she hadn’t re-holstered her gun. Instead, she was pointing it at Jared and Felicia.

 

Jared had picked up on it and was aiming his own blaster at Dani. “Woah! What are you pointing that gun at us for?”

 

“I don’t know,” Dani said in a hard voice. “You were the one who showed up here, in the middle of nowhere, on a ship that’s not working, and hasn’t been for a long time by the looks of it.”

 

“I’d say a few hundred years,” Chris’s voice came over the comm. “That’s an old Dragonfly, second or third series. They haven’t been built in four hundred years.”

 

Felicia gasped and stumbled against Jared. “Four hundred years—” Her voice broke.

 

Jared gripped her arm, but his movements were wooden, as if he was running on autopilot. “What date is it?”

 

What date? Had they been kept prisoners somewhere? Lost in space?

 

“Today is 4.22.2,176,” Jensen said, watching their reactions carefully.

 

Felicia’s mouth fell open and she shook her head, while Jared’s jaw clenched.

 

“Fuck.” Jared turned to Felicia. “What the fuck did you get us into?”

 

Felicia closed her mouth again but she still didn’t look like she was processing. “I thought… I mean, back on the ship with the crew, I thought maybe… but we’re _here_. _Now_. That’s just…” She gathered herself. “And what do you mean, what _I_ got us into? I told you not to touch the flake and you had to go pick it up and _shake_ it! This is all _your_ fault!”

 

“I didn’t think it would do anything!” Jared shouted at her.

 

“Well, obviously it did!” Felicia yelled back. “And you were the one who came to me asking about high priced treasure!”

 

“Yeah, treasure! Not some fucking magical objects!”

 

Felicia crossed her arms in front of her chest. “How was I supposed to know this?”

 

“You’re the archaeologist!” Jared flailed his arms. “You’re supposed to know that shit!”

 

“Yes, because the Loriyans left a detailed instruction manual for their most sacred and most _secret_ holy object,” Felicia said with biting sarcasm, barely managing to contain herself. Then she lost it. “You can’t know something like this!” She screamed and her voice was bordering on hysteric. “This is unknowable! Incomprehensible! There’s no example, no precedent, there’s nothing—”

 

They were glaring at each other, yelling nonsense and Jensen didn’t have time for this shit. “Enough!” he roared in his best battle command voice and the two strangers immediately shut up.

 

“I don’t know what your problem is, I don’t even know who you are or where you came from, but we can’t stay out here forever while you two get your shit together.”

 

Despite his still obvious shock, Jared shot Dani’s gun a calculating look, then he raised his hand, gun pointing at the ceiling and took his index finger off the trigger. “There’s no reason for guns. We’re not the enemy.”

 

Dani just raised an eyebrow. “So you say.” She didn’t lower her gun. “You could be Empire spies for all we know.”

 

“Why do people keep accusing me of that?” Jared said with an annoyed expression. “The Knights, or whatever they’re called, were all over us because of this fucking Empire.”

 

“Might be something to it then, don’t you think?” Dani asked.

 

Jared rolled his eyes, then stuck his gun into his belt. “We’re not with this Empire you keep talking about, nor with anyone else. We’re our own people.” With that he walked over to Felicia, ignoring Dani and her pointed gun. He gripped Felicia by the shoulders. “Look at me.”

 

She was still trembling.

 

“I’m sorry I yelled. This is just some really fucked up shit. I’m sorry, okay?”

 

Felicia’s nod was choppy.

 

“So it fucking worked,” Jared continued with a strained voice. “Now we need a way back. If the flake was a one way ticket, we just have to find another one.”

 

“Another one?” Felicia asked with a strangled voice. “Are you insane?”

 

Jared leaned down until he was almost nose to nose with Felicia who was more than a head shorter than him. “You are one of the best archaeologists out there. You found one of the rogue settlements of the First Earth settlers, right? You were the one who proved early interplanetary strife and how the settlers purposefully searched for a new way of life. You can do this. There is a way back and we will find it.”

 

Archaeologist? Jensen had never heard of such a thing. Where had these people come from? And what were they looking for? A flake, Jared had called it. Jensen needed to figure this out, but he’d be damned if they’d do it while they were vulnerable, floating tied to a dead ship.

 

He tried to catch Dani’s eye, but she was still watching Jared and Felicia.

 

Felicia looked unconvinced at Jared’s words. “But that was different, Jared. This flake, it took us years to track down its location and there was never any sign of the others! One of them supposedly was destroyed in the first war, and two others were brought off planet but there were never any credible accounts. And it’s a hundred and forty years later! I’d have to start all my research from scratch. And even if we were to find it, what if someone had already used it?”

 

A hundred and forty years later? It made Jensen wonder if the legends about cryogenics were true after all. There’d been rumors the Empress was trying to wake up the first Tremendous Leader whose body had been frozen after his death. There had never been a successful revival before and nothing had been confirmed. Maybe these people were the test runs? But he didn’t have the time to waste on speculating. He had to deal with this mess, one thing after another. So he left Jared and Felicia to their continuing freakout, that was now an argument conducted in agitated whispers.

 

“Dani! Get Alaina and the prisoners off the bridge.”

 

Dani tore her eyes away from the newcomers and nodded. “What do we do with the Knights? If we take them back with us, the Council is going to go ballistic.”

 

“They abducted two people.”

 

“Who could be Empire spies, for all we know.”

 

“Doesn’t matter. We’re taking them back with us to Camp White. The ship’s busted. Have Chad run a detailed scan and take anything that could be useful.”

 

“Aye captain,” Dani said in that tone that meant that she only mostly agreed. She shook her head. “You know, if you wouldn’t piss off every council member every chance you get, you could have a seat on the council. All the fighters would give you their votes.”

 

Jensen gave her a disgusted look. “I’m not a fucking politician.”

 

Politician’s greed and lack of backbone had gotten them into this situation in the first place. If the senate hadn’t agreed to all the special rights for the president and had even voted on awarding him the title of Emperor, they might still be a free confederation. As it was, the Confederate Empire was a dictatorial, fascist state and the politicians had stood by and let it happen.

 

With an eyeroll, Dani walked past him. “Not all politicians are evil. Jim’s on the council too. Think about it, Jensen.”

 

He shook his head. “Jim’s different. And I can get more done out here. Half the time they don’t know what’s good for the resistance anyway. How many times have we done something that wasn’t a mission and how many times have we altered missions, huh? I’m good where I’m at.”

 

She raised an eyebrow. “Captain of a ship? Sure. That’s why you do all those budget and evacuation calculations, why you helped with the medic system setup, and why you made us fly diplomatic missions to get more planets involved.” She slapped his shoulder a bit too hard. “Whatever gets you through the day.”

 

Before Jensen could reply, Jared started shouting.

 

“Fuck.” He punched the wall then shook his hand. “ _Fuck._ ”

 

Felicia watched him with a worried expression. “It’s not _entirely_ hopeless.”

 

“Really?” Jared bit back. “Because you sure made it sound like it.”

 

She shrugged helplessly. “I have no idea what kind of research I can do here, how things have changed. It’ll take time, to figure things out.”

 

“Okay, that’s enough now,” Jensen interrupted them. “We’re kind of on a schedule here, so we need to get going.”

 

Jared crossed his arms in front of his chest, biceps bulging, the material of the suit stretching at his shoulder, and drew himself up to his full height. Impressive. Good thing that Jensen wasn’t intimidated by that kind of thing.

 

“And you two are going to tell me exactly what the fuck you’re doing out here.”

 

Jared and Felicia exchanged a look.

 

“We should tell him the truth.” Felicia said.

 

Slowly, Jared nodded. “Our ship broke down,” he said. “We’re on our way to rendezvous with the rest of my crew and we didn't want to be bothered on our journey, if you know what I mean. We just want to get out of here. The Third Outer Rim is not a good place to be right now, so if you could drop us off at Altorro, we can hitch a ride from there.”

 

“Never mind that your ship hasn't worked in a long time, you really want to go to Altorro?” Jensen asked, mind spinning. What the fuck was going on here?

 

“That’s what I just said, isn’t it?” Jared asked impatiently.

 

Jensen put a hand on his gun. “Even though Altorro is a military station of the Empire you claim not to work for?”

 

There was a shocked silence, Jared and Felicia exchanged looks again.

 

“Altorro isn’t a free trade station anymore?” Felicia asked hoarsely.

 

Jensen shook his head. “Hasn’t been one in a hundred years, I think.”

 

Felicia looked at Jared again, prompting and reproachful. “No more lies, Jared.”

 

“Felicia!”

 

“What? Maybe they can help!”

 

Jared looked at her like she had lost her mind.

 

“They’re fighting the Empire,” Felicia said and when Jared didn’t seem to get her point, she added slowly, “the other captain called it the _Confederate_ Empire!”

 

It took a moment before some kind of realization dawned on Jared’s face. “You think?”

 

“Well, it was kind of a foregone conclusion the moment Pellegrino declared himself Tremendous Leader, don’t you think?”

 

This was getting weirder by the second. What did the first Tremendous Leader have to do with this?

 

“Hmm.” Jared looked back at Jensen, scrutinizing him carefully. “So, you’re some kind of rebels?”

 

It wasn’t a secret. Jensen had more than one run-in with the Empire and two years ago they’d finally declared him guilty of high treason and he’d made the top-twenty of their most wanted list. Ever since, his picture decorated every Empire outpost.

 

“We call ourselves the resistance.” He wondered who in the galaxy hadn’t heard of the resistance. Maybe they were from a planet under complete Empire control and had nothing but Empire propaganda on their screens?

 

Felicia beamed. “That’s great. We hate the Confederation...ate Empire too!”

 

“You do?”

 

She nodded. “There’s even a warrant out on our—”

 

“What Felicia is trying to say,” Jared said, cutting her off, “is that we’re on your side. So we’d appreciate if you could drop us off somewhere safe.”

 

Jensen had no idea what was going on with these two, the only thing he did know was that they were lying their asses off. He just couldn’t let them go. There was still the matter of the strange energy surge and how they’d gotten out here. And who knew what kind of information they could sell to the Empire.

 

“Well, we’re not stopping until we get to our base.”

 

“And where is that?” Jared asked.

 

“Come on, I can’t give you details. Somewhere in the Fifth Outer Rim is all I’ll say.”

 

Jared looked skeptical but nodded. “Fifth Rim is fine with us.”

 

Felicia looked like it wasn’t fine with her at all but she didn’t say anything.

 

“Okay.” Jensen took a deep breath. He needed to talk with Dani and Chris about this. “For starters, you’re coming over to our ship.”

 

“Thank you,” Felicia said sincerely, but Jared, who’d been watching him sharply, just grinned derisively.

 

“Don’t be grateful. He doesn’t believe us, he just wants to keep an eye on us.”

 

Jensen inclined his head with a smirk, then motioned them towards the hallway and followed them. Felicia seemed harmless enough but Jared held himself like a fighter and was perceptive enough to make a good strategist. Jensen would have to watch him closely.

 

“Your gun,” he said and held out his left hand to Jared, the right one resting on his own blaster.

 

For a moment, Jared hesitated, but then he handed over the blaster. Jensen wasn’t sure how much of a difference that would make, Jared looked like he could do a lot of damage with his bare hands.

 

First, a conference with Chris and Dani was in order. They’d have to decide what to do with these people.

 

 


	4. Chapter 3

 

 

A dark-haired woman who introduced herself as Traci escorted Jared and Felicia to an empty cabin.

 

“You should really get out of that space suit,” she told Jared with a wink. “That old thing just doesn’t look comfortable.”

 

Under normal circumstances Jared would flirt right back, but right now he didn’t even know — he didn’t know anything. Walking the short distance to their saviors’ ship and his mind had started to go blank. The damage control mode from before was gone. The anger had passed, he’d had time to think and he just couldn’t compute because apparently they had really fucking time traveled. _Time traveled_ , for fuck’s sake. He felt like a he’d spent a day at the Shooka carnival.

 

Jared let out a short barking laugh and Traci shot him an inquiring look but he just shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just that Chad’s gonna be so mad he missed this.”

 

“Chad?” Traci asked irritated, but whatever else she said was drowned out by Felicia’s high and manic laugh.

 

With a slightly alarmed expression, Traci pointed towards a slide door. “Alright then. You’ll stay in here, there’s clothes and a shower.”

 

There was a black hand-sized panel next to the room and when Jared pressed his fingers against it, the door opened. He was pretty sure access could be restricted so that the cabin could serve as a cell instead. He didn’t like it, but right now, he and Felicia needed some privacy to figure out what the fuck they were going to do next.

 

Inside the relatively roomy cabin was a closet full of clothes in different sizes, even several items that would fit Jared. They were not that different from what Jared was used to, boots, pants and shirts. The material felt different, softer and more flexible and there were more pockets in the pants.

 

Jared didn't know what he would have expected from future fashion, he’d never given it much thought. The future. Fuck. The fucking flake had worked. Jared shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He couldn’t panic now. No matter how surreal this was — and it was plenty — he needed to focus. They needed to get back home, to the _Libby_ and his crew. They just needed to find a flake that would get them there, if one was even still around. To make matters worse, they seemed to have stumbled into the middle of some kind of galactic war. On the first ship, they’d already been accused of being Empire spies or maybe working with the weak ass would-be rebels (Alaina’s words). Illegal archaeological digs were difficult enough when you weren’t in a war zone.

 

They needed to figure out exactly what was going on here and fast. If Felicia was right and the current Empire had grown from the Confederation, well — Jared actually had no idea what advantage that would bring. The captain might actually be their best bet, despite his gruff demeanor. He’d come to Jared’s and Felicia’s help and he hadn’t wanted to spill blood. He was open about being in the rebellion — or resistance, as he’d called it — so he’d be a natural ally for Jared. He just needed to find a way to get the captain to help them.

 

He examined the pile of clothes he had taken out of the closet. “They’re very well equipped for a rebellion, don’t you think?”

 

“No idea,” Felicia said absently, because she was focused a slim piece of fabric.

 

“What?” Jared asked.

 

“I think this is supposed to be a bra,” she said, turning the fabric over in her hands warily. “But I have no idea how it’s supposed to fit.” Still skeptical, she undressed.

 

Jared turned away to give her some privacy. “Do you really think incomprehensible bra design is the most important issue now?”

 

“If I don’t focus on this, I’ll run around screaming because we actually time traveled and the universe got worse not better,” she pressed out. “So I will take a shower now and then figure out how to deal with this.”

 

“Fair enough.”

 

When Felicia had disappeared into the bathroom, he took his own heap of fresh clothes and left the cabin. He didn’t like being in a potential cell.

 

He wasn’t too surprised when he saw Traci hanging out at the corner.

 

“You need something?” she asked.

 

“Do you have another shower I could use?” Jared asked.

 

Traci raised her eyebrows, but led him down the gangway to what had to be a communal bathroom. Dammit. Jared would have to find another way to do some snooping around.

 

The shower worked like the showers he knew. The buttons were smoother, but it wasn’t hard to figure out how to turn on the water. Even in the future, a shower was still a shower. Jared had to chuckle. The need to laugh didn’t go away, and in the enclosed space of the shower, Jared pressed his forehead against the cool gray tiles and laughed until tears were swimming in his eyes. He had traveled to the fucking future. He wondered if he was just gone in his time or if he’d already be back there because he’d found a way to return. This whole shit was giving him a headache, but he couldn’t just not think about the _Libby_ and his crew.

 

Fuck. Before they’d been dragged here Chad had said a patrol was on the way. Now that Felicia and Jared had disappeared, had the _Libby_ managed to get out in time or had the crew waited too long? When they went back, they’d need to time it just right so they could flee immediately. Jared realized that not only his and Felicia’s fate might depend on getting back. His crew was in danger too. So Jared quickly soaped himself up and rinsed off. He had a flake to find.

 

He met Felicia back in the cabin. Her hair was still wet, but she was beaming.

 

“Oh my stars, Jared, this is the best bra ever! The fabric practically molded itself to my boobs!”

 

“I’m really happy for you and your boobs, but can we focus on the more pressing issue now?”

 

Felicia gave him the stink eye but sat down on the bed cross-legged.

 

“Okay. We were transported to the future.” She just deflated, as if saying it out loud somehow made it more real. Then she took a couple of deep breaths and Jared forced himself to wait until she continued to talk. “The flake we had was obviously not the one for heart’s desire. I don’t think this is the beginning of anything, and it doesn’t look like an end. Unless this Empire is going to destroy the galaxy but why would they?”

 

Felicia looked at Jared questioningly.

 

“They wouldn't, I guess. So what else is left?”

 

“Where we wanted to go and where we needed to go,” she said.

 

“I certainly didn’t want to go here.”

 

“Yeah, me neither. So, for some reason, the flake thinks we’re needed here. Maybe,” she said slowly, “we have to help the resistance.”

 

Jared pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not this again.”

 

Felicia had always hated the government and they’d had an argument about fighting it about a year after she’d joined his crew. Resistance in the galaxy against the government was rising and Felicia had asked Jared if he wouldn’t join. He was smuggling anyway, he could do it to hurt the Confederation and help the people. She knew a few people who were getting together and raiding Confederation stations.

 

Jared had no interest in it. Governments came and went, it didn't affect him. He only wanted freedom and safety for his crew. Taking risks didn’t help with that. He had no intention of sacrificing himself for some noble cause only for the people to carry on like before. People were people. Governments didn’t change that.

 

Felicia disagreed. She’d painted horrific visions of a galaxy in chains, no freedom left for anyone. When Pellegrino had taken the new title of Tremendous Leader instead of the regular one of President, she’d told him this was proof. New laws for trade and transportation restrictions, they were happening. The government was centralizing and monopolizing several of the economic sectors. Mining planets were put back under government control. Jared could see her point, but he couldn’t believe the planets would bow down to Pellegrino unless he had absolute power. The senate was a vocal, powerful legislative body, locked in a stalemate in the struggle for power most of the time, but the president had to obey the laws the senate put in place. Executive orders only got him so far.

 

“You’ll see,” Felicia had said. “He’ll just change the rules and then there won’t be a safe place for you to fly no matter how far you go.”

 

It seemed, unfortunately, that maybe she had been right. Not that they had any idea why this Empire was so bad that there was a resistance fighting it. Though Jared had a feeling it wasn’t just the name.

 

“Look Jared,” Felicia started. “The Confederation has turned into an Empire, with an actual Emperor. Jensen and his crew clearly aren’t on their side.”

 

“Yeah, but we have no idea what side they’re on. Maybe there’s an Empire _and_ a Confederation now, who knows? We need information. We don’t even know why they’re fighting the Empire, maybe they just want to bring back archaeology!”

 

Felicia shot him an evil look and yeah, Jared knew that that was highly unlikely.

 

“The point is, we need information. We have to get you to some fancy library and start with the research. We’re not staying here, no matter what that stupid flake wanted. I need to get back to my crew. There was a patrol coming for us and if Chad and Gen waited too long, they were picked up by the police. So we’re going to find the flake that brings us where we want to go and that’s it.”

 

Felicia shook her head. “Jared, the chances of finding that… and we have no funds, no ship! We’d be totally dependant on charity.”

 

Exhausted, Jared sat down at the end of the bed and buried his head in his hands. “So what do you want to do? Do you just want to stay here? Fight in some stupid resistance you know nothing about while back in our time, our friends are maybe thrown in jail or worse?”

 

“No, of course not!” Felicia was indignant. “I care about them too, you know that!”

 

And Jared knew she did. Felicia had grown close to Kim, finding some kind of mother-surrogate in her. Gen and Felicia bickered like sisters, and she bugged Osric endlessly about his knowledge of the history of space travel. Jared thought she was working on some kind of book even though she denied it whenever he asked. But Felicia was a terrible liar.

 

She’d even taken a liking to Chad although the two couldn’t be more different. But she did care about the crew.

 

“So we have to find a way back.”

 

He looked at Felicia, who was nodding to herself. “Yes. And who knows, the flakes might not be the only objects to hold that kind of power. There are all kinds of old legends about the first settlers. No one ever took them seriously, but then again, no one thought the Loriyan flakes possessed any kind of power.”

 

At that Jared perked up. He hadn’t thought he’d even believe in this crap but now that he had actually time traveled, anything was possible.

 

“Are there any other time travel stories?”

 

Felicia’s forehead wrinkled and she chewed on her bottom lip. “I can’t think of anything right now. There’s a lot of stuff about powerful weapons, scrying stones and that kind of thing. There’s one about an old circle of stones but you supposedly just fall asleep within the circle and wake up two hundred years in the future.”

 

“No thanks.” Jared shuddered. The last thing they needed was more travel forward in time.

 

“Our best bet, until I can do further research, is the flake. But Jared… what if the people on the ship used the one to get where they wanted to go?”

 

Jared froze. “Well, that would still leave the one for your, what did you call it, heart’s desire?”

 

Felicia nodded.

 

“The _Libby_ is definitely my heart’s desire, so that would work too.”

 

“Okay, good point.” Felicia perked up for a moment, then she sighed again. “But Jared, the whole archaeological community couldn't find any other flakes for two hundred years, how am I supposed to—”

 

“No!” Jared scooted over and pressed a finger to her mouth. “No doubts. We have to find a way back and so we will. End of discussion. I will help you as best I can and together we will do it.” He sat back again. “We just need to find a way to get the captain on our side.”

 

“The captain?” Felicia asked warily.

 

“Or anyone really.” Jared stood and started pacing. “We need help. Money, access to research, a computer and then, at some point a ship to get where we need to go and all while evading the Empire.”

 

“But we haven’t done anything wrong here,” Felicia argued. “And I hate to say this but the Empire might have the best records.”

 

“We don't have any papers,” Jared reminded her. “If the Confederation were sticklers for papers in our time, you can bet it got worse.”

 

Felicia pulled a grimace.

 

“The resistance must know people.”

 

“Well, we could tell the truth and ask for their help,” Felicia suggested.

 

“That’s ridiculous.” Jared said. “They’ll never believe us. And even if they did, why would they help us?”

 

“Well, they’d be helping themselves, really,” Felicia said matter-of-factly.

 

Jared looked at her in confusion. “What?”

 

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?”

 

Jared stared at Felicia, confused and impatient. “What is obvious?”

 

Felicia leaned forward and straightened her back. It was her lecture-pose. “If we go back, we’ll know what happens in the future. And then we can prevent it!”

 

Was she off her rocker? “You want to change the future?”

 

“Look at this!” Felicia exclaimed. “A resistance fighting the government! Civil war in the galaxy! That’s terrible, Jared. Of course we’d try to stop it. And why wouldn’t the resistance support that?”

 

Jared had no intention of stopping anything from happening. It was hard enough keeping his people safe flying under the radar. To actively seek out trouble with the Confederation was just suicide. Besides, no one ever got anything from fighting for other people.

 

He just wanted to tell Felicia that he still had no desire to become a rebel fighter, when something occurred to him.

 

He stopped in his tracks. It was so obvious, why hadn’t he thought of it immediately? Jared started laughing.

 

“What?” Felicia asked anxiously. “Jared, are you okay, do you need me to get a doctor maybe?”

 

He shook his head, feeling himself smile maniacally. “I’ve got it!”

 

“You’ve got what?”

 

“A way to get help.”

 

Felicia looked still alarmed but now her expression was part hopeful too.

 

“You said yourself, the resistance will probably want to prevent this entire mess from happening?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Jared spread his arms. “So, we tell them the truth and then, we take them back with us!”

 

“Take them with us,” she repeated slowly, trying out the words as if it would help her figure out if that would work.

 

“Yes. I have no idea how many people we could take with us, but the more the better. And then they’d be sure someone they trusted would fight Pellegrino. And they’d know us, people who actually live in the time, and we could share our expertise, where to get weapons and that kind of thing. ”

 

Jared wasn’t all that keen on getting involved in this fight but if the resistance believed them and helped them to go back, he had no trouble taking people back with him and sending them off in the right direction.

 

“That… you…” Felicia closed her mouth, opened it again, eyes wide in surprise. She raised a finger, pointed at Jared, eyes narrowed to thin slits. “That is…. actually ingenious!”

 

Jared grinned at her.

 

Something occurred to her then because she gaped. “But then we’d change time!”

 

“That’s what you just said before,” Jared reminded her.

 

“Yes, but oh my stars, Jared, _changing time_!” She flailed her arms.

 

Jared took a deep breath to keep calm. “So?”

 

“What if we break the time-space continuum?”

 

Jared rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. It won’t. I mean, we already changed time by coming here, didn’t we?”

 

“Well, yeah, but we didn’t go backwards.”

 

Jared shrugged. “Do you really think we can break the time-space-whatever by doing a little time travel?”

 

Felicia leaned back. “Not really, but we could open alternative timelines, we could make it worse, we could—”

 

“Felicia,” Jared leaned down to her. “We need to go home. The crew is in danger. You said the flake brought us here on purpose. What if it was to show us now, so we could go back and prevent it from happening?”

 

Felicia looked torn. “Maybe. But if we change time, then what happens to this future?”

 

Jared stopped. He had no idea. “I don’t know. Does it matter?”

 

She shook her head. “If we change the future, all these people’s lives will be different. Maybe they won’t happen at all. Maybe they won’t even be born!”

 

Shit. “This is making my head hurt.”

 

“Yeah. I mean, from a moral standpoint, preventing a war would be the right thing.” Felicia was back in scholar mode, debating the problem with herself. “The good of the many outweighs the good of the one. But who knows if the people here will see it that way. They might not be willing to risk their existence for a chance at peace.”

 

“It’s a rebellion. Aren’t they fighting for the greater good?”

 

Felicia snorted. “Don’t be naive.”

 

Jared sighed. Fuck. Felicia was right of course. Not a lot of people would be willing to risk so much.

 

“Well,” Jared said. “It’s time travel. No one’s ever done that before. So no one will know how it works. I don’t think there’s another way to get their support. We can’t run around the galaxy for years trying to get back and then not make it and leave our crew back home to die. We have to try. We’ll just… wing it.”

 

Felicia looked at him like she was swallowing Shooka worms but she nodded, once. “Okay. I mean, we might start a terrible chain reaction, but sure, let’s wing it.”

 

Jared gave her an encouraging smile. “Well, you said yourself, this is unprecedented, unknowable. Let’s just assume that the universe won’t be bugged by two little humans doing a little time travel, and erase people’s existence.”

 

Felicia looked up to the ceiling. “Oh stars give me strength.”

 

Jared always found it weird when she did that, looking up to pray to the stars. Planet-dwellers.

 

“How about we go talk to the captain?”

 

Felicia nodded. “I have no idea if he’ll even believe us but we gotta try.”

 

When they left the cabin, Traci was still outside in the hallway.

 

“We need to talk to the captain,” Jared said.

 

Traci nodded. “Sure. This way.”

 

She led them to the mess where a kind-looking blonde woman was cooking something in a giant pot on the cook top.

 

“So you’re the strays.” She turned to them and surveyed them critically. “I told the captain he needs to stop picking up people but he insisted you were in a tight spot.”

 

“Yes, ma’am,” Jared said. He knew the type. She’d seen a lot shit in her life but she hadn’t lost her compassion. She was about two decades older than all the other people Jared had seen on the ship so far who seemed to be either in their twenties or their thirties.

 

“I’m Sam,” she introduced herself. “And I’m the cook here.”

 

“Jared,” Jared introduced himself. “That’s Felicia. And if it wasn’t for the captain, we’d still be with the Knights.”

 

Sam nodded but didn’t pry why they were out here in the first place.

 

“We wanted to talk to the captain,” Jared said.

 

“I’m sure he’s on his way.” She glanced over to Traci who nodded and then disappeared out of the room.

 

“Sit,” Sam ordered and pointed towards the table.

 

Great. He hated sitting on his ass and doing nothing. Surreptitiously he looked around the ship. All in all, it didn’t seem like people had made many technical advancements in the last two hundred years. Some shapes were different, lights blinked in other colors and everything seemed a little smoother, a little more polished, but he still recognized air vents and door control panels. Every storage space was sealable and the weapons he’d seen so far looked like regular blasters.

 

Felicia caught his eyes.

 

“What?” She asked quietly while Sam was rooting around in the big fridge.

 

“Over a hundred years, and I thought more would have changed.”

 

Felicia's expression was thoughtful. “Maybe. But with a lot of political unrest… and if the defunding of education continued like it started out under Pellegrino I wouldn’t be surprised if no big new innovations took place.”

 

She had a point. Jared still wanted more info. Traci had disappeared for now and while Sam was busy, Jared took the opportunity to quietly leave the mess. Felicia shot him a look that was a mixture of _what the fuck are you doing_ and _stay here_ , but Jared just winked at her. He needed to be prepared in case they didn’t believe them, so he needed to get a grip on the layout of the ship.

 

Wandering the short gangways it became clear that this ship was never designed as a transporter, for neither goods or people. This was a small, long-range battle ship.

 

The mess was comfortable and there was a second common area with cushy looking couches, each one outfitted with a small entertainment system. The cabins they’d stayed in were big enough for permanent lodging. Apart from that, there was only a room for weapons locked behind a grille, the hallways leading to the bridge and a small room outfitted with communication and a map table. It was a war command room.

 

Jared moved on, bypassed the ladders leading upwards. When this ship had approached the Knights of Hell, as his first captors had introduced themselves, Jared had seen that it was shaped like an oblong, flattened sphere. Up those ladders was nothing but four little bubbles that housed cannons and maneuverable guns. Jared was much more interested in downstairs.

 

He took one of the ladders leading down. A long hallway ran the entire length of the ship and Jared carefully approached the nearest door. It opened onto a space that housed a machine he had no idea the purpose of. So much for no technical innovation. Jared knew his way around a ship but this complicated metal cuboid made up of a myriad of pipes and cables was beyond him. He left the room and searched on. The engine in the next room was gigantic, and split into three different components. It was smart, really. If the ship got hit there was a much better chance to sustain power. Jared wasn’t sure how the power came together as one or if each generator powered different parts of the ship, but it was impressive.

 

“Looks good, doesn’t it?” a voice behind him drawled.

 

Jared turned around to find a peculiar looking man leaning in the doorway. He was tall and slim, his light brown hair short on top of his head but long in the back. His eyes were droopy, but they scrutinized Jared with shifty intelligence. One look at the state of his clothes and Jared knew who he was dealing with. The state of a mechanic’s clothes hadn’t changed in the last centuries.

 

“It’s a beauty,” Jared said. The quickest way to a mechanics heart was always through their ship.

 

“Isn’t it?” the mechanic said. He kept watching Jared.

 

“Do they all power the ship together or did you split it?” Jared asked, indicating the three components.

 

The mechanic pushed off the doorjamb and walked towards the middle engine. “What do you think?”

 

Jared had heard of several engines in ships even in his time. They all served different parts of the ship. But this was the future. So people might do the smart thing.

 

“They all serve the entire ship. That way, if you take a hit, they might not all fail.”

 

The mechanic nodded. “There’s also a safety stop. An engine gets hit, it disconnects so the others don’t burn through.”

 

“Good in a fight.”

 

The mechanic raised his chin. “You took a look around the ship?”

 

Jared shrugged his shoulders casually. “Wasn’t hard to see this bird’s built for war.”

 

“We live in dangerous times. The captain likes to be prepared.”

 

“How is he?” Jared asked. “The captain, I mean. Seems like a tough guy.”

 

The mechanic pulled back, raised eyebrows half incredulous, half you-better-believe-it. “Yeah, he’s a tough guy. And there’s no one else who flies better than he does.”

 

So the captain was more than just tough and competent. He inspired loyalty in his crew, and it certainly wasn’t based on fear. The mechanic respected the captain, for his competence and his person. He was almost defensive about him, like he owed him a personal debt.

 

Jared nodded, soothing the waves. “I’m grateful that he came to our rescue. The Knights weren’t all that hospitable.”

 

They’d been hostile from the get go as a matter of fact, their captain’s right hand man ready to cut up Felicia’s face to get information out of them.

 

The mechanic laughed. “Nah, the Knights are a bunch of extremist assholes. Unless you’re on their side, you’re with the enemy.”

 

“Well, we’re not with the Empire,” Jared said.

 

“That remains to be seen, I think,” the mechanic said. “Cause we don’t know who you’re with yet, do we?”

 

“There you are.” Traci was standing in the door, eying Jared suspiciously. “The captain’s waiting for you upstairs. What are you doing down here?”

 

“Just admiring the machinery.”

 

Traci clearly didn't buy it but a searching look at the mechanic didn’t give her more than a shoulder shrug. She rolled her eyes and then motioned Jared to follow. “Don’t test me, stranger. You’re cute, but not that cute.”

 

Jared gave her his most charming smile and followed her back up.

 

In the mess, the captain, the redheaded bombshell who’d threatened Jared and Felicia at gunpoint, and four other people were waiting. They all held themselves like people comfortable with dangerous situations. Felicia was huddled up on a chair, her legs crossed under her body, every inch of her screaming worry. It was a stark contrast to the crew of this ship.

 

A young blonde woman was ostentatiously cleaning a gun. A guy with long hair was lounging around on a chair, rolling a dark piece of paper in his hands, crumbs of something purple sticking out the ends.

 

Two other guys were sitting at the table, one with brown hair, the other blond. They were talking quietly, clearly joking about something and laughing.

 

In the middle, leaning with his back against the table, was the captain. Back on the other ship, Jared had been occupied with saving Felicia, but now he could take the time to examine him. The captain was a tall, good looking man with a hard jaw line and soft lips. It was a maddening contrast. Jared should probably focus on other things. He looked the captain in the eyes which was an even worse idea. He’d never seen eyes so green. And so unyielding. This was not a man to be fucked with.

 

“My name is Jensen Ackles, I’m the captain of this ship, the _Colt_ ” he said with a deep,  even voice. “You already met my Lieutenant, Danneel Harris.” He nodded towards the redhead who gave Jared a knife-sharp smile. “I think it’s time you two introduced yourselves too.”

 

Jared gave an exaggerated bow. “The name’s Jared Padalecki, captain of the _Libby_. Which is not that sad old dragonfly out there. This is Professor Felicia Day, my retrieval advisor.”

 

If he wanted to convince them of the truth to their story, he needed to give up their real names

 

“Professor?” Captain Ackles asked and turned to Felicia. “A professor of what?”

 

“Archaeology,” Felicia said.

 

Lieutenant Harris arched her eyebrows. “That’s not a thing.”

 

Felicia looked at her on confusion. “What? Of course it is! I got my degree at Gamma University.”

 

The five main center planets Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon were the homes of the most respected universities in the entire galaxy — at least in Jared’s time.

 

“Chad, check it out,”  the captain ordered.

 

Jared whirled around, almost expecting to see his grinning first mate for a moment, but there was only the mechanic, typing on a small computer tab.

 

“Chad?” he asked.

 

“Chad Lindberg, at your service,” he said, and continued to type.

 

“Well,” Felicia said into the silence, “I guess everyone needs a Chad.” Then she started giggling helplessly. Jared could sympathize. Fortunately, he’d gotten his freakout over in the solitude of the shower.

 

Chad showed Ackles something on his tablet and the captain turned to Jared with a hard expression.

 

“How about you try again and this time with the truth?”

 

“But that is the truth!” Felicia said urgently.

 

“So you were born under a rock?” Chad asked. “Cause there’s no entry for you in the birth registry.”

 

“Birth registry?” Felicia was flabbergasted.

 

“Well,” Jared said. There really wasn’t anything to it. Go big or go home. “If you look us up you should go about a hundred and forty years back.”

 

“Hilarious,” Harris deadpanned. “Your crazy talk wasn’t funny on the Knight’s ship and it isn’t funny here.”

 

Ackles was eying them warily, as if he expected an attack any second. His right hand was hovering over his gun holster. “I’m with my lieutenant on this one. Either you tell us the truth, or we’ll dump you straight into the brig till we get to headquarters.”

 

Felicia gasped. “You can’t do that! We haven’t done anything wrong! And you’re supposed to be the good guys!”

 

Ackles seemed genuinely concerned about Felicia. “I want to help you, I do,” he said and his expression was sincere. “But you’ve got to give me something here. I need to be sure you’re not on the Empire's side. Whatever you’ve done, whatever you’re running from, as long as you didn’t hurt anyone, I don’t care.”

 

“But we’re telling the truth!” Felicia sighed exasperatedly.

 

“Look, captain,” Jared said slowly. “Felicia and I traveled here from the past, apparently about a hundred and forty years ago. In our time the galaxy was under the Confederation’s rule and we just wanted to dig up a magical artefact to make some cash.”

 

“You expect me to believe that bullshit?”

 

“Not really,” Jared said with a faint smile. “But since you found us in a ship that hasn’t run in over three hundred years or so, I don’t know what the alternative could be.”

 

“There are a million possibilities,” Ackles said but he sounded a bit defensive to Jared.

 

“Name one.”

 

“Somebody brought you out here. It could be a trap, or you had a disagreement with your crew and they marooned you.”

 

Jared dragged a hand through his hair. He couldn’t blame the captain for not believing him but they needed to move this along. “Look, I get this is crazy. Before I touched that fucking flake I didn’t believe it either.”

 

“Oh yes, the magic flake.” Ackles sharply arched one eyebrow. “Where is that, exactly?”

 

“It was destroyed,” Felicia explained. “When we used it.”

 

“Very convenient,” Ackles said.

 

Chad stood and walked over to the captain, silently showing him the tablet.

 

Ackles ignored him, still looking at Jared and Felicia. “Look, you two are very good liars. I’m even contemplating the possibility you got drugged or brainwashed or something. But time travel,” he batted Chad’s tablet away, “is impossible. Even if it ever gets invented, then people would come back from the future, but…” he trailed off when Chad pushed the tablet right in front of his nose.

 

“What the fuck?” he said quietly, and then ripped the tablet out of Chad’s hands, studying it.

 

The mechanic turned to Jared and Felicia and eyed them curiously. “Time travel, huh? That’s wild.”

 

“Tell me about it,” Jared said and leaned back. Chad must have found proof, so they could finally move forward.

 

“What?” Harris asked. “What the fuck did you find?”

 

Chad gently took the tab from Ackles and turned it to the rest of the crew. There was a news article, showing a row of people, Felicia among them.

 

The headline read: _Archaeological Society disbanded after archaeology is cut from college curriculum._

 

“That’s from a hundred and forty one years ago. It’s dated 2,047,” Chad said. “Looks like their story checks out.”

 

Felicia nauseously looked at the article. “That turd. Oh, I still want to strangle him for that!”

 

“What about him?” Captain Ackles asked, nodding towards Jared.

 

“Hmmm.” Chad stared in concentration at the tablet and rapidly typed in commands. “Ah, here we go.” Once again, Chad turned the screen. On it, there was a wanted poster with a rough sketch of Jared’s face. His nose was too big, his hair shorter than now and he had a beard but he was still recognizable.

 

 _Captain of the_ Libby _, Jared Padalecki, 6’4’’, brown hair, brown eyes, armed and dangerous. Wanted for smuggling, robbery, and assault of Confederation Agents._

 

“6’4’’?” Chad asked skeptically and eyed Jared up and down.

 

Jared snorted. “6’5’’ but who’s measuring?”

 

“I would,” Traci called over with a smirk.

 

“So, assault of Confederate agents?” Ackles asked, looking like he had composed himself.

 

“It was either that or go to jail for transporting some Confederation only goods. And I don’t think the government should have any say in what I can and can’t transport.”

 

Ackles nodded slowly. There was silence in the room as Ackles’s crew seemed to digest the news. Chad’s expression was mostly curious while the rest of the crew had varying expressions of disbelief on their faces. The longhaired guy hadn’t stopped twisting the paper roll in his hands back and forth, as if he’d forgotten it was there.

 

“If time travel is possible,” the brown haired guy in the back started, but Harris cut him off.

 

“I don’t even want to know where you’re going with this.”

 

The captain looked pensively at Jared and Felica, slowly rubbing his chin, tuning out his crews’ bickering. Jared thought he could see the wheels turning in his head but he had no idea in which direction the captain's thoughts were going. The rest of the crew fell silent, obviously waiting for the captain to make a decision.

 

“Alright, time travel,” he finally said. His voice was even. “Considering it hasn’t been invented yet, how did that work? You said something about some kind of flake?”

 

Jared just pointed at Felicia who took it as her cue to launch into a detailed lecture about Loriya, the history and the religion, and several theories about the sacred flakes. Ackles listened patiently and attentively, but his eyes wandered back to Jared occasionally. With the rest of Ackles’s crew spellbound by Felicia and the possibility to timetravel, Jared tried to assess the people.

 

Scanning Ackles’ crew, he saw a bunch of battle hardened, determined people. Idealists. Their faces were wary and their worry lines too deep for their age. Jared could see scars on hands, arms and faces. These people had seen their fair share of battle. There was a good chance they’d want to go back to stop this war.

 

“...and then Jared had to go pick it up and here we are.” Felicia finished with a chastising look to Jared.

 

Silence from the crew.

 

“Well,” Ackles said finally. “That’s quite the story.”

 

“Trust me, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn’t lived it.” Jared grinned ruefully. “But here we are.”

 

“I still say they’re lying spies,” Harris said. She looked straight at Jared. “I just don’t trust him.”

 

The short blonde snorted. “The Empire isn’t creative enough to come up with a story like that and fake the proof.”

 

The guy with the long hair pointed at her. “I’m with Alona.”

 

“Enough.” Everyone fell quiet, all eyes on Ackles. “We’re on course to Camp White. You’ll come with us and then the Council will decide what to do with you.”

 

Jared nodded. They didn’t really have a lot of choices. They needed to do research to figure out where to go hunting for the flake and then they needed to find a way to get around. They didn’t have any money; in fact, they didn’t have anything but the clothes on their backs and even those were courtesy of Ackles. They’d need the goodwill and help of the resistance.

 

Ackles walked towards him. Like most people, he was shorter than Jared, but only by three, maybe four inches. With the way the captain looked him square in the eyes, it didn’t feel like that much. “You’re on my ship now, so you’ll follow my rules, captain or no captain.”

 

Jared raised an eyebrow. He was not going to be intimidated by Ackles’s hard stare.

 

“You are a smuggler and a thief,” Ackles said quietly. “Now, I don’t know how the good professor fell in with the likes of you, but I know your type. I’ll be watching you.”

 

Up close, Ackles’s eyes were impossible green. Jared couldn’t help but notice that the captain was fucking beautiful.

 

“I won’t mind,” Jared said and he didn't think he managed to suppress a flirty grin. This could be a lot of fun. Not that he needed the distraction but flirting had always been a good stress relief.

 

Ackles’s eyes widened in surprise and possibly disdain.

 

Fuck, Jared needed him on his good side. Apparently the captain wasn't one for a bit of fun.

 

“Not every smuggler is the same,” Jared said quietly. “I’m not going to cause any trouble, I just want to go home.”

 

Jared couldn’t tell if Ackles actually believed him when he nodded. He had a feeling though that it would take a lot to earn Ackles’s trust.

 

Ackles took a step back. “Well, it seems that since you’ll be traveling with us for a while, introductions are in order.” He half-turned towards the crew and gestured towards the people sitting at the table. “Chris Kane, our trusty pilot.”

 

The long haired guy saluted with one finger.

 

“The wonderful woman making dinner is Sam Smith and Traci, Alona, Richard, and Sebastian are here to kick some Empire ass,” Jensen finished.

 

The “and to keep an eye on you” was implied.

 

Jared gave them a very friendly smile. “Nice to meet y’all.”

 

Ackles didn’t comment. Instead, he laid out the schedule. “Two meals a day, you’re hungry in between, you go beg Sam and hope she takes mercy on you. The trip to Camp White is going to take two weeks because we can’t do the whole trip in hyperspace, too many sections are under Empire surveillance.”

 

Hyperspace surveillance? Well, it seemed the Empire had learned some new tricks after all.

 

“Questions?”

 

“Yes.” Felicia jumped out of her chair. “I want to know everything that happened in the time we skipped.”

 

Jensen seemed a bit taken aback by her fervor but nodded. “We saved a lot of the old history books before the Empire destroyed them to publish their own version. DJ can show you how to access the library.”

 

Felicia looked searchingly at the people in the room. It was Harris, the opposing lieutenant, who got up. “He’s still laid up with a broken leg. I’ll show you the way.”

 

The rest of the crew took it as a sign to disperse except for Sam who continued cooking — a clock on the wall proclaimed it 18:12 so Jared assumed dinner would be soon. At least it would be, if they ran on the same twenty-five hour day that was the norm in Jared’s time.

 

“You don’t have questions?”

 

Jared looked at Ackles who was still there, still watching him with an unreadable expression.

 

“I have questions. But I don’t think you’ll be willing to answer them.”

 

Ackles raised his eyebrows. It seemed to be his thing. It looked good on him, made his eyes pop.

 

“I want to know about the resistance,” Jared said. “What your plan is, how you fight. And I want to know how far the Empire’s reach is.”

 

Ackles nodded. “I can answer the second one. But I’m not gonna tell you anything about the resistance until I know which side you’re on.”

 

“Hey, you saw the warrant. I assaulted Confederation agents.”

 

“But now you’re here,” Ackles said. “And back there on the Knight's ship it seemed you were quite intent on going back.”

 

“Why does this sound like an accusation? Of course I want to go back. I have a life, a crew.”

 

Ackles crossed his arms in front of his chest. “And what if the only way to get back is by playing nice with the Empire?”

 

“I didn’t like the Confederation back home, so I have a feeling I won’t like the Empire here,” Jared said slowly. “And I’m not a snitch.”

 

“A snitch?” Ackles asked.

 

“Yeah, a rat.” Still no comprehension on Ackles face. “Someone who sells you out to the government.”

 

“Oh, a Shooka cat.” Ackles looked at Jared thoughtfully. “It’s nice, that you say that. But I don’t know you, so I don’t trust you. And you’re a criminal.”

 

Jared couldn’t really blame him for that but the whole criminal thing was getting old.

 

“I might be a smuggler, but I’m loyal to my crew. I would never sell anyone out to the government, because I fucking hate them. Freedom is the most important thing in life and I’ll fight anyone who wants to take that away.”

 

“Alright.” Ackles uncrossed his arms. “We have some time before dinner.” With that, he walked out of the mess. Jared followed.

 

Ackles led him past the common room, where the two guys, Richard and Sebastian, were watching some kind of weird game show where people seemed to fall into a pit of mud a lot. Eventually, they came to one of the cabins. It was bigger than the one Jared and Felicia had been in and it only had one bed.

 

“Ah, the perks of being the captain.”

 

Ackles grinned. “There are more.” He motioned towards two chairs at a small table, covered in a tab and sheets of paper. “Sit.”

 

Then he cleared the table and pulled a bottle filled with a clear liquid and two short glasses out of a cabinet. “For special occasions. I think time travel qualifies.”

 

Jared drank and the liquor sharply burned his tongue but the taste was surprisingly pleasant. He took a second sip.

 

“Good, isn’t it?” Ackles asked.

 

Jared nodded. “Reminds me a bit of Sheerha wine.”

 

“You’ve got a good palate. This is moonshine from Sheerha. They make the best contraband spirit in the Fourth Outer Rim.”

 

Jared laughed. “I’m not surprised. The people on Sheerha never liked authority much.”

 

“These days, no one really does.”

 

Jared emptied his glass and poured himself another. The occasion called for it. “So how did it happen? I mean, when Pellegrino declared himself Tremendous Leader it was pretty clear he was going off the rails, but how did you end up with an Empire?”

 

“Technically,” Ackles said derisively, “it’s still a confederation. Well, it’s the Confederate Empire now, which is kind of an oxymoron if you ask me, but that’s what it called. The Tremendous Leaders took more and more control for their and their followers’ gain so you have a few very rich people in the Center living on the bent backs of the rest of the galaxy.”

 

Jared didn’t buy it. “The Confederation was a coalition of planets. And the center depends on the Outer Rims. I mean, the Center needs the products the Rim sends them.”

 

“You’re right.” Ackles nodded. “The center is the most densely settled star system in the entire galaxy. I mean, how lucky were the settlers from the First Earth to find this galaxy? Almost all planets in the Center are hospitable to humans. And then, the farther you go out, the fewer they get. There are entire star systems in the Outer Rims where only one or two planets are habitable.”

 

“I know,” Jared said exasperatedly. “I’ve traveled the galaxy a few times, you know?”

 

Ackles leaned forward. “But you don’t understand the implications.”

 

Jared shrugged. He’d never gone to school, and when he grew up, his mother had taught him the important things, like reading star charts, calculating crew rations, taking care of a gun and some basic flight training. Apart from learning to read and to write and basic math, Jared hadn’t learned any classic school stuff and he’d hadn’t needed it yet.

 

“I had better things to learn.”

 

Ackles huffed.

 

“Why don’t you enlighten me then?” Jared asked and made a prompting hand gesture.

 

Ackles leaned back in his chair, obviously debating whether Jared was worth his time. “Fine,” he eventually said. “The Center was settled first, right? All the old money, the old power, that’s where it went and that’s where it’s remained. The only people who traveled further out were those who couldn't afford land in the Center.” Ackles emptied his own glass and followed Jared’s example to refill it. “With the supplies from the Rims, the population in the Center could grow way past what the planets there were able to sustain. So they needed more and more products from the Rims.”

 

“But that gave the outer planets the power and the money,” Jared interjected. “There are a few systems out there that are filthy rich. Sheerah, for example, and the whole Be-La system in the Fourth Rim.”

 

“And that’s where the first Tremendous Leader came in. You remember his election campaign?”

 

Jared tried to think back. “He bragged about his business, I think? That he wasn’t a politician and that he could change things or some bullshit. And I remember some people getting offended because he mocked religion or something. I didn’t really pay attention, I just remember that I didn’t like his face.” Jared shrugged. The universe was full of all kinds of religion which Jared had never cared about one way or another. His crew was mostly atheist anyway, only Kim sometimes prayed. Jared thought she was a member of the Old Faith maybe. It had never mattered to him.

 

Ackles gave him a disgusted look. “Well, if anyone ever asks me again how Pellegrino could take power, I’ll just send them your way. And just for your information, he started his presidency with taking away rights for religious people.”

 

“Why?” Jared asked. He couldn’t see any kind of advantage of that.

 

“Because you always need a scapegoat and because it created a lot of outrage so no one paid attention when he started his economic overhaul. Pellegrino regulated prices galaxy-wide. First the government just put a cap on it, to ‘prevent usury’ they said, but as soon as all intergalactic transport was under their control, the government dictated prices. They kept the farmers and the factory workers poor and the people in the center got richer. Nowadays it’s pretty much one giant party in the Center and misery on the Rims. The First Rim is mostly doing okay, but that’s because a lot of the rich have land holdings there and they don’t want rebellions on their own planets.”

 

Jared thought about it. It made sense but he couldn’t see how the senate, whose members represented every planet in the galaxy, would let this happen.

 

“How did the senate let this happen?”

 

Jensen raised his eyebrows. “You can’t be so naive. They wanted power.”

 

“I know they’re a bunch of self-serving assholes, but if they strengthen the president, they cut their own power. And there are many more people living on the Rims, so they have way more people in the senate.”

 

“Gerrymandering,” Jensen said, like it explained everything.

 

“What?”

 

Impatiently, Jensen waved his hands. “Gerrymandering. They reduced the number of senators to ‘de-bureaucratize’, and then redrew voting districts. Suddenly you had senators representing more than one planet whose interests clashed completely. They’d usually work on behalf of the planet who had more money and the Outer Rims started tearing each other apart politically, before the government even had to do anything.” Again, Ackles refilled their glasses.

 

“And the remaining senators… well there was all kinds of backdoor dealings going on, the government promising exceptions and funding to senators so they would go along with rulings that might not affect their planet. And then poof,” Ackles mimicked an explosion with his hands, “the exceptions were gone and there was no money for funding anymore.”

 

Jared leaned back. “How did no one see this coming?”

 

“A few did. There was an uprising, about a hundred years ago. Several of the poorest planets formed an alliance. So the government forced an all out war, took the fighting to other planets under the pretense of rooting out dissidents and it got so bad, the senate allowed the Leader special rights. The Tremendous Leader at the time declared a state of temporary Empire, to protect the peace, but you can guess how temporary that was.”

 

Jared pursed his lips. “Still going on, I’d say.”

 

Jensen nodded grimly. “The resistance formed shortly afterwards. We’ve been fighting this war for almost a hundred years now, Captain Padalecki, but because planets were slow to join, the Empire has a huge headstart. And then the Knights splintered off, so it’s been chaos for a while.”

 

To Jared, this all sounded like a giant clusterfuck and not something he wanted to deal with. But it did sound like the resistance needed all the help they could get. “So, what’s the plan?”

 

“The plan?” Ackles said, like the answer should be obvious. “We continue to fight. We recruit more planets. We show them that there’s a way to restore balance. The council acts as a government for the planets under our control. Our advantage is that the Empire needs to focus on the planets richest in resources otherwise they’d have a riot in the center. We hit profitable targets to buy time to bring the rest of the galaxy on our side.”

 

“And how is that working?”

 

“We win some, we lose some,” Jensen said darkly.

 

Oh, the resistance would definitely need their help. And it wasn’t that Jared didn’t sympathize because it sounded like life had turned to shit on the Rims but he’d learned a long time ago that fighting for the people wasn’t worth it. Their opinions changed quicker than a Shooka rat changed colors and there was no reward. And he had his own people to look out for. The thought of the _Libby_ caught by a Confederation patrol and his crew thrown in jail made his blood boil. The only reason that he was sitting here, wasting time with Ackles, getting a lecture on the history of the galaxy, was that he needed his help to get back.

 

“Sounds like you could use some help then,” Jared said.

 

Ackles looked at him in surprise. “What, you’re volunteering?”

 

Jared purposefully kept it vague. “I told you, I didn’t like the Confederation, so I’ll like the Empire even less. Trust me, I’ll keep fight them tooth and nail when I get home. But I have a crew who depends on me.”

 

“Honor among thieves,” Ackles said with quirked lips.

 

Jared just nodded. He’d put it out there, him going back with the implications he’d fight. And he would — for himself and his crew. He’d give Ackles a few days to think about that. Jared and Felicia would need a lot of help. It wouldn’t hurt if Ackles already liked their idea, even better if he got there on his own.

 

A deep gong sounded over the speakers.

 

“Dinner time,” Ackles said, and stood.

 

Jared followed him back to the mess.

 

Dinner was a strained affair. Both Ackles and Harris were watching Jared attentively. Apparently both had decided he could be a threat. Jared wasn’t sure if it was because of his size or because he’d threatened to shoot the redheaded second in-command.

 

Felicia completely ignored the tense atmosphere and kept asking everyone at the table question after question. She sat next to a thin guy with a pointy face and big, jutting ears who seemed to be more than willing to answer her questions. Poor guy. Felicia was not interested in dick at all.

 

After dinner, Harris walked them back to their cabin. It was a not so subtle hint to stay put for the night.

 

“We’ll behave,” Jared promised her with a wink.

 

Harris rolled her eyes.

 

“Not like that!” Felicia hurried to say, obviously misinterpreting Harris’s annoyance. “We are not a couple.” Emphatically, Felicia shook her head. “And we’re not, you know,” she waved her hand between her and Jared, “we’re not doing that.”

 

Harris snorted. “Humanity has come a long way in the last hundred and forty years.” And with that, she slammed the door shut.

 

Felicia stood, gaping at the door.

 

Jared leaned against the door. “You seem to be handling this well. Seeing as you're already checking out the options.”

 

Felicia audibly shut her mouth. “Obviously, she’s not an option. Asshole,” she added under her breath.

 

Jared wasn’t sure if she meant him or Harris, but he didn’t bother asking. He felt beat, bone-tired. His head was swimming, too full with everything that had happened today, and the things that could happen now. And at the back of his head was the constant, nagging worry about his crew. Gen was a great pilot and Chad worked well under pressure but if they had waited for him and Felicia, or worse, come looking for them, wasting time in getting away — Jared had to force himself not to think about it because he knew the answers. Chad wouldn’t have left without checking every inch of that old Dragonfly. Maybe Gen had overridden him, had thrown him out of the bridge and just flown them away. Jared could only hope.

 

Now he just wanted to lie down and go to sleep and deal with this crazy shit tomorrow.

 

But when he was lying in bed, Felicia softly snoring next to him, he couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 4

 

“Wanna go for a smoke?” Chris asked, holding up a roll between his fingers.

 

It was Chris's own design. The vaporizers that people used to inhale hooka capsules in all kinds of flavors were Empire patented. The Empire also had the prerogative to distribute hooka capsules. Smoking, which was considered so essential it was available even on prison planets, was completely under Empire control. When Chris's last vaporizer broke, he'd taken a leaf out of one of the old history books the resistance had saved. Before it became customary to smoke concentrated hooka balls a long time ago, people had inhaled actual burning plant leaves rolled up in a piece of paper. It still sounded insane to Jensen but with a little help from slow-burning leaves from the palm trees on Rence, Chris managed to burn crushed hooka balls wrapped in common desert grass and the effect came pretty close to smoking the Empire’s product.

 

Out of disdain for anything monopolized by the Empire, Jensen had never smoked hooka capsules. But every once in awhile, he joined Chris for his version of a smoke up in the escape hatch. He was sorely tempted now, but there was something he had to take care of first.

 

Jensen pointed towards the cabins, where Dani had stormed off to. “I gotta go talk to her.”

 

Chris nodded. “I’ll be up tonight, cause I can’t let the autopilot fly much longer. You can keep me company, if you want to.”

 

“I probably will.”

 

For now, Jensen went looking for Dani. The door to her cabin was closed so he knocked.

 

“What?”

 

Jensen pushed the door open.

 

Dani was angrily sorting through a pile of clothes. “I think the laundry machine is broken. There’s still blood on my shirt.”

 

“You wanna talk about it?” Jensen leaned against the doorjamb. He wasn’t going inside before he knew if Dani wanted to talk. Her reaction to Padalecki had been extremely volatile and there was only one possible reason for that.

 

“Time travel?” she asked, purposefully misunderstanding him. “Crazy shit. I mean, who would’ve thought?”

 

“So you do believe them?” Jensen asked, indulging her.

 

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, there’s a lot to back up their story and there are easier ploys to infiltrate us, so I guess I do.”

 

Jensen was glad she was looking past her anger to see the facts. “But you don’t like them?”

 

“The professor seems harmless enough.” She paused and looked at him. “But you’re right, I don’t like that Padalecki guy.”

 

Now, they were getting somewhere. “Is there another reason besides the fact that he reminds you of Michael?”

 

Dani shot him a glare. “If you’re insinuating that I’m still not over that asshole, fuck you, Jensen.”

 

“Give me a break, I know you better than that,” Jensen said and walked into the room. “But it’s okay if it still hurts.”

 

“What hurts is that I was so stupid to trust him,” she said and violently started taking her clothes off, throwing her jacket and shirt together with all her dirty clothes.

 

She turned away from Jensen and he couldn’t help but look at her back, at the long, raised scar that ran from her left shoulder blade to her right hip.

 

Every time he saw that scar, he was reminded of how she got it. She had dangled from a hole in the rooftop of a warehouse, barely holding on in the dense rain. Jensen had been two houses away, fighting two EE members. It had happened over five years ago, but Jensen would never forget searching for Michael, who stood on the roof, just a few steps away from Dani. But instead of coming to her rescue, Michael had seen the approaching Empire soldiers and had turned tail and ran.

 

Dani had slipped and fallen inside the building, disappearing from Jensen’s view. When he managed to get through to her, panicked and half-expecting to find her dead, her leg was broken and she had ripped her back open on a beam. She was barely breathing and only Chris flying the _Colt_ right into the fight zone saved her life.

 

They’d never seen Michael again.

 

Dani struggled into an old pullover, made from actual wool. It was coming apart at the seams but it was her comfort sweater.

 

“It’s not just his looks,” she said defensively.

 

It was true. Apart from his height and build, and the long hair, Michael didn’t look much like Padalecki.

 

“It’s the way he talks,” she said, “the way he acts. He’s a fucking smuggler, Jensen. He doesn’t care about the fight. He doesn't care about the people, hell, the entire fucking galaxy, not like we do.” She gave Jensen a challenging look. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

 

“I’m not sure,” Jensen said heavily and sat down on the chest at the end of Dani’s bed. “We had a little chat and I believe that he hates what the Empire was in his time. He wants to go home, to his crew, so I’m not sure about his priorities yet.”

 

“Charming.”

 

Jensen snorted. “You can’t really blame a guy wanting to go back to his people.”

 

Dani arched her brows. “So what, you like him?”

 

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Jensen said. “He asked how it happened and he honestly had no clue. The politics of his time didn’t interest him. He already lived Pellegrino getting elected, the first Tremendous Leader, and he wasn’t worried about his anti-religion politics at all or about his trade policies. He couldn’t even see why that would be a problem.”

 

“Well, there you have it.”

 

“I don’t know.” Jensen had been appalled, during his conversation with Padalecki, but he had cared about the professor, had protected her. “I don’t know if he’s ignorant or if he truly doesn't care.”

 

“Does your indecisiveness have anything to do with the fact that he’s tall and handsome?” Dani asked snidely, referring to Jensen’s usual type of stress-relief.

 

“I’m going to ignore that because you’re clearly in a bad place,” Jensen said and stood. “If you wanna talk, I’ll be with Chris.”

 

“Hey, you were the one who came to me!” she yelled after him but Jensen just shut the door behind him.

 

Dani’s anger burned hot but faded just as quickly. She liked company when she was sad but she was obviously still in the rage phase so she was best left alone.

 

Jensen made his way up to the escape lock. Chris was sitting in the small, now smoky space, just finishing his roll.

 

He held one out to Jensen who sat down on the floor, legs stretched out in front of him. Gratefully, he took the roll and lit it up with Chris’ lighter.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“No problem. I mean, time travel, right?”

 

“As if we don’t have enough problems.” Jensen shook his head and let out a laugh. He still couldn’t really believe it, but the evidence was in their favor. And if this was all made up, these two would be the best actors he’d ever seen.

 

“I thought nothing could shock me anymore,” Jensen said, “and then we get two people from the past. It’s crazy.”

 

Chris nodded and for a while they sat in companionable silence and smoked.

 

Like Jensen, Chris came from an old resistance family. His grandparents had been founding members of the first council and both his parents had been fighter pilots. Jensen and Chris had trained in the same resistance camp and when they’d taken over a ship during a raid on an Empire trade station, Chris had summarily taken over the controls, declared Jensen his captain and flown them to the prison to free captured rebels. Alona, Traci, Richard, and Sam had decided to stay with them, even when the Council argued Jensen was too young for a command of his own ship. Jensen was only twenty-five back then, younger than any other captain. But Chris’s word carried weight, and with three freed soldiers standing behind him, Jensen received a grudging commission. Jensen would be forever grateful for their trust and their faith in him.

 

Sebastian had joined them when his planet had joined the resistance and Dani got herself reassigned to Jensen’s ship after Michael abandoned her during the joint mission that gave her her scar. She’d flown with the resistance for a long time and if she hadn’t been with Michael, Jensen would have tried to recruit her long before.

 

Chad was a late rescue, he’d only joined their crew two years ago. Then last year, Jensen had let DJ on board. He wasn’t cut out to be a fighter, too clumsy and too eager, but his father was on the council and Jensen wasn’t really given much of a choice. Fucking politicians. He was still waiting for DJ to do something worse than break his leg during a simple supply mission.

 

Jensen had brought his crew through all kinds of dangerous situations. They worked together as a team, as limbs from the same body, but now, who knew what they’d be facing. Fucking time travel.

 

Padalecki had said the flake was destroyed but maybe there were more. Time travel could be a powerful weapon. To change the past, to know the future, it could change the outcome of their whole fight.

 

“What are you thinking about?” Chris asked.

 

“We have to figure out these time travel flakes,” Jensen said. “If there are more of them…”

 

He didn’t need to finish the sentence, Chris understood. “It’s some heavy shit. What do you wanna do?”

 

“We’re gonna get them safely back to the council. There are people there who can research this shit. If there are any other time travel devices out there we need to find them before the Empire does. And we need to make sure that no one knows about this. I’ll tell the rest of the crew tomorrow, but not a word to anyone, where — shit, _when_ — our two passengers came from. If you call into base, you’ll tell them they were prisoners on Alaina’s ship and that’s enough.”

 

Chris nodded. “There are too many stupid people around to talk about that kind of thing.”

 

Unfortunately, that was true. Not everyone who fought the Empire was smart or even what Jensen would call a good human being. The Knights of Hell were just one example of the resistance gone wrong.

 

“I’m gonna head to the bridge,” Chris said. “There’s a few tricky stretches coming up.”

 

“Anything comes up on the radar, you wake me,” Jensen said.

 

Chris nodded, handed Jensen another roll, and then headed down.

 

Jensen remained in the escape hatch, slowly smoking the second roll and thinking about Captain Padalecki and Professor Day and their strange journey from the past. There were too many ways that whole thing could go bad for him and his crew, hell, the whole resistance, to go to bed just yet. His mind couldn’t stop spinning possible scenarios; the Empire finding out about time travel, the Knight’s finding out about time travel, Padalecki and the professor becoming enemies of the resistance and the sliver of hope that time travel could be what would sway the war in their favor. He knew it was pointless to make plans at this stage but he couldn’t help trying to have a contingency plan for any possible outcome.

 

 

 

  


Despite his restless night, Jensen woke early. He headed downstairs through the corridors lit only by the minimal night lighting. His crew was still asleep. Below deck, next to the engine room, there were the cells and a workout room. Dani was already there, doing pull-ups on a multi-purpose rod to the beats of old rock music. Jensen nodded at her and started running on the treadmill.

 

They worked out in silence and when he was done with his routine, Dani was waiting for him at the edge of the padded training floor. They sparred and it was easy and comfortable, like it had been for years. Afterwards they were lying sweaty on the mats, catching their breaths.

 

“Sorry for snapping at you,” Dani said.

 

“Already forgotten.”

 

She sat up. “So, time travel.”

 

Jensen groaned. Thinking about it made his head explode. “Time travel.”

 

“Used right,” Dani said, “time travel could be a weapon. Just imagine, to travel to the future, then act to prevent it. If we knew where the Empire will strike, where their weapons will be…”

 

“We have no idea how it works and if there are other time travel flakes out there.”

 

Dani turned to him. “Well, you said Padalecki wants to go back. So they must believe there’s a way.”

 

“I think it’s more hoping than anything else.”

 

“What do we lose by helping them look?” Dani asked.

 

Jensen had thought about that, for a long time last night. “Nothing.”

 

Dani grinned. “You’ve thought about it.”

 

Jensen nodded. “But I wouldn’t want to go to the future. I’d go back.”

 

“Change the past?” Dani asked skeptically. “But if we change the war, what happens to us?”

 

Jensen shrugged his shoulders. “No idea. But peace for the galaxy, wouldn’t that be worth it?”

 

Sharply, Dani arched her eyebrows. “I know you’re the self-sacrificing kind but do you really want to play fast and loose with the fate of the galaxy?”

 

“Just think of all the people who died, Dani. All the people who suffered.” Usually Jensen focused on the task at hand, at what lay right in front of them. Thinking about what he’d seen, what happened daily under the Empire’s rule did nothing but make him angry and desperate. It curtailed his ability to think and to plan and it clouded his judgement. So Jensen blocked it out. But sometimes, he couldn’t escape the memories, the knowledge of the galaxy’s suffering. “Remember when we flew out to Horlan, to deliver the meds? But half the settlements were already deserted because so many people had died?”

 

Dani turned her head to the side, mouth a thin line. “Of course I remember.”

 

“And that’s only one of the times where we were too late, where we couldn’t help. If there’s any chance for a do-over, why not take it?”

 

Shaking her head, Dani stood and reached her hand out to Jensen. He took it and she pulled him up. “I don’t think we can just decide the fate of the universe like that.”

 

“It’s nothing but an if anyway,” Jensen said. “We don’t even know if they’ll find any time travel devices or how long that’ll take. Nothing’s changing now.”

 

“Good, because—”

 

The rest of her words were drowned out by the siren.

 

“Shit!” Jensen ran towards the stairs immediately, Dani right on his heels.  

 

Jensen didn’t stop until he reached the bridge, panting, sweaty and still barefoot from his workout.

 

Chris was in his pilot seat, his hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. Chris had his own fight-do. Alona was already there — no surprise — leaning over Chris’s shoulder to study the flight screen. Jensen could hear the rest of the crew arriving behind them. Chris hadn’t sounded the fight alert, just the alert.

 

Padalecki and Professor Day were also there and Padalecki watched Jensen and then Dani with a raised eyebrow and a dirty smile. So not the time.

 

“What?” Jensen asked and walked up to Chris.

 

“We received a distress signal from the moon Terhin. It’s a forest moon and the people live off the mines. They were late on their taxes and the Empire came in and raided the place. They weren’t gentle.”

 

It was a common story. Jensen clenched his jaw. “What do they want?”

 

Chris played the message.

 

“Please, whoever is out there,” a high desperate voice said, “we were attacked by an Empire Echelon. We have many dead and even more wounded but we don’t have enough medical supplies and they burned our food storage. Please, we need help. Please, if anybody can hear this, we need help.” The voice broke.

 

“Fucking bastards,” Alona mumbled.

 

“Any proof of the story?” Jensen asked and started checking the scanners.

 

Hundreds of times something like this had really happened but the Empire had set traps for the resistance before. He had to be careful.

 

Chris pointed at the analysis shown on the board computer. “Lots of smoke emission. Something definitely blew up there and there and there.” He pointed at several spots on the chart showing the settlement.

 

“Any sign of an EE ship?”

 

Chris shook his head. “The moon is clean and the planet it revolves around is inhospitable. Too volcanic. No one would hide down there.”

 

“Okay.” Jensen turned to the crew standing in the doorway. “Let’s get ready. It could be a trap but we have to make sure. We’ll go down there, help with first aid, assess the situation and see if we have to send a rescue ship. Dani, tell Sam to get her bag ready.”

 

Dani nodded and disappeared down the gangway. Sam wasn’t an official doctor, but she was one of the best field medics he’d ever met. The rest of the crew dispersed to get ready, only Padalecki and the professor remained. She looked torn between terror and curiosity. The captain's face was a mask Jensen couldn't read.

 

“You gonna come with, make yourself useful?” Jensen asked.

 

Padalecki nodded. “Sure.” He didn’t sound too enthusiastic.

 

The professor still looked apprehensive. “I’d love to go. But I’m not really good with medicine. Or a gun.”

 

Jensen gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “Just stick to Dani, she’ll protect you.”

 

Dani didn’t look like it, but she actually loved playing protector. Jensen thought in a world without the rebellion Dani would have become a bodyguard.

 

“Patch me through,” Jensen ordered and Chris opened a channel.

 

“Terhin base, please come in.”

 

No reply.

 

“It was a recorded distress message sent out by beacon,” Chris said. “Could be their comm tower is out.”

 

Jensen looked at the analysis again. He didn't like the situation but he couldn’t leave these people down there without help.

 

“Alright, take us down.”

 

With a steady hand, Chris took them down to the main settlement’s port. He’d pulled up the schematics of the planet and Terhin had one major city at the entrance of the mines, the rest of the people lived spread out through the forests in houses built into the trees. When they got closer, Jensen realized why. The trees were massive, trunks too thick for ten people to form a circle around it and hold hands. They weren't high but their branches spread out almost horizontally from the top of the trunk, forming a natural platform for a dwelling. Jensen imagined it was much easier to build in the trees than to clear them.

 

The city was a dense mass of flat barrack-like buildings standing close together at the foot of a natural slope. Smoke was rising from many parts of the city and what Jensen assumed to be the entrance of the mine — a cleared area at the junction of city and forest, he could see the earth churned and a gaping, ragged hole in the ground.

 

Chris brought the _Colt_ down on an undamaged landing pad. The crew armed themselves, and with Jensen and Dani at the front, left the ship. Chris would remain on board, ready to fly them off, and DJ was still laid up with his leg. Chad was standing next to Jensen, chewing on some piece of rubber and watching his analyser tab.

 

“There’re heat signatures coming from these houses to the left and that pile of rubble over there. Temp looks low, so the people are either dead or close to it,” he said, his fingers flying over the tab to get different readings. “The comm tower is indeed out and so is their energy grid. The Empire leveled the place good, the fuckers.”

 

“Any sign of the Empire?” Jensen asked. They needed to get down there and help the people but he wouldn’t lead his crew into a trap.

 

Chad gave him the stink eye. “I know every Empire trick in the book. Unless they learned how to hide in a parallel dimension, they’re not here.”

 

“Alright.” Jensen raised his voice. “Split up. Look for survivors. Dani, you keep an eye on the professor.”

 

Dani looked like she might protest. She looked at Professor Day, then Padalecki, scrutinizing his broad shoulders and the blaster strapped to his hip. “Fine,” she said and jerked her head towards Padalecki, “but then he’s with you.”

 

“Can’t we all go together?” Professor Day asked, her voice worried-thin.

 

“We’re faster this way,” Dani explained and then led her off by the shoulder. “Come on.”

 

Padalecki shot Professor Day an encouraging look and then turned to Jensen. “Alright. Let’s do this then.”

 

Jensen nodded and turned towards the mine. “Let’s check out the collapsed tunnel first.”

 

They walked in the direction of the mine, past burnt out buildings. Here, the damage seemed to be the worst. Jensen took the rifle from his back and next to him he saw that Padalecki had drawn his gun. When the damage lessened, and the houses were only half collapsed, windows and doors broken, roofs fallen in but walls still standing, Jensen heard a sound.

 

“You hear that?”

 

Padalecki stopped, tilting his head. Everything was silent. “I don’t—”

 

“Shh!” There it was again.

 

Recognition dawned on Padalecki’s face and they turned towards a house to their right at the same time. A quiet scratching noise was coming from inside the building. It could be someone stuck under a collapsed part of the ceiling or the furniture. Or it could be a trap. Or it could be a small animal. Resting the butt of the gun against his shoulder, Jensen approached the house.

 

Padalecki had veered off to the side so they were approaching the doorway of the house from two sides. When Jensen looked around quickly to check the perimeter, Padalecki was doing the same. Good. The guy knew his shit.

 

They met at the door. Padalecki pointed at himself, then motioned going inside, then pointed at Jensen, mimicking his gun. Jensen nodded.

 

Padalecki drew a breath, then he ducked through the doorway, Jensen stepping in behind him to cover him. The house was filled with rubble, almost the entire ceiling had collapsed. Nothing seemed to be moving. They waiting, then the scratching was audible again, coming from their left.

 

Jensen could see nothing but broken chunks of ceiling plates and a piece of wooden furniture still standing. He pointed his gun at it. Padalecki did they same.

 

“Hello,” Jensen said. “Is someone here?”

 

Nothing.

 

“We’re here to help,” Jensen said. “We picked up your distress call.”

 

Quiet scratching.

 

“Okay, that’s enough,” Padalecki said exasperatedly and walked towards the rubble.

 

“Wait,” Jensen hissed, “we don’t know—”

 

“Either someone’s hurt or we’re gonna get blown up anyway,” Padalecki said.

 

Jensen cursed under his breath and aimed his rifle at the piece of furniture sticking out. Padalecki was smart enough to approach from the side so that Jensen would have a clear shot.

 

Padalecki raised one hand, curling his index finger once, then he bent down and gripped one of the large pieces of rubble and pulled it back, his back and shoulders straining under his jacket and the tendons in his hands standing out.

 

When the ceiling piece was pulled away it revealed an empty space below and from it jumped a brown, furry creature. It couldn’t be much larger than Jensen’s hand and it squeaked in what Jensen thought sounded like terror. It scurried away beneath another rubble heap immediately.

 

Padalecki let out a bellowing laugh, throwing his head back for a moment. “Oh stars, I don’t believe it, that was—”

 

The earth shook with an earsplitting crash. A powerful blast swept through the building, pushing Jensen to his knees. The sound of the explosion was almost secondary to the feeling of not being able to breathe. When Jensen looked up, out of breath and ears ringing, his vision swam. He blinked violently to get it back to focus. Before him, Padalecki was pulling himself up against the wall, holding his head.

 

His mouth moved but Jensen couldn’t understand the words. He shook his head. He needed to focus. That was an explosion. A blast explosion. His crew, he needed—

 

He hastened to the next window, looked outside. Fuck. He pulled back immediately and when Padalecki came over, Jensen gripped him by the collar and pulled him away from the window.

 

“EE,” he said and the words sounded far away in his ears.

 

“EE?” Padalecki asked, sounding just as far away.

 

“Empire Echelon. The Emperor’s personal army. I don’t have time for a lesson, we need to move.”

 

He tried to activate his comm but it was dead. “Shit!”

 

“What?” Padalecki seemed worried. Good, he should be.

 

Jensen held up his useless comm bracelet. “EMP. They fried the comms.”

 

“What do we do?”

 

“We need to assess the situation.”

 

Padalecki nodded. “We need height.”

 

He walked over to the far wall and climbed the rubble to pull himself up on the remaining roof structure. Jensen followed him and Padalecki held out his hand to pull him up. On the roof, they crouched down and watched in horror as a dark gray ship emerged from the hole where the mine entrance had been. Jensen didn’t know how Chad had missed them but he’d have words with him. If they survived.

 

The ship’s large ramp opened and EE soldiers swarmed out in neat lines of two. They were outnumbering Jensen’s crew five to one and he could see the ship’s big guns already aiming for the _Colt_.

 

Padalecki gave him an expectant look. “So, what’s the verdict?”

 

“Well,” Jensen said slowly, trying not to accept that they were fucked. “We’re outnumbered and outgunned. They’re clearly trying to take us alive otherwise they’d have already shot up our ship. There’s a pretty big bounty on Chad’s head so they’re probably after him. It’s not a secret that I was the one who busted him out. If they think he’s here that might actually work in our favor. But with their numbers they’re gonna pick us up one by one and we can’t leave because they’d shoot us down.”

 

“The _Colt_ isn’t down from the EMP?”

 

Jensen shook his head. “Not for long. Chad has a contingency plan for that.”

 

“Of course he does,” Padalecki muttered. “All Chads are alike, apparently.”

 

“What?”

 

Padalecki shook his head like a wet dog. “Nothing. So, what’s our play?”

 

Jensen made a frustrated noise. “Well, if we want to get out of here, we need to disable their ship and then haul ass. The crew will do fine in a close quarters fight but they can’t hold out forever and not as long as the EE have their ship’s guns for backup.”

 

Padalecki looked back to the EE ship and let out a low whistle. “What is that?”

 

Jensen looked to see the small and maneuverable two person gliders emerge from the ship. He pulled a grimace. “Yeah, this is gonna suck.”

 

Padalecki watched the gliders approach and split up. One of them veered off into the street where they were hidden. “It really will,” Padalecki said and then ran crouched to the edge of their house. Jensen stared after him. He wouldn’t.

 

“What the fuck are you—”

 

Jensen didn’t get further because when the glider whizzed past them, Padalecki jumped from the roof. He would. Fuck. Jensen ran after him, only to see that he’d landed on the glider, and dragged off the Empire soldiers in the process. The glider was now idling riderless a few paces away.

 

Padalecki and the two soldiers were on the ground groaning and slowly recovering from the fall, though Padalecki was the quickest to get back on his feet.

 

“Shit.”

 

Jensen took a hold of the roof’s slightly raised edge and swung himself over the edge. Dangling from the one story building the fall wouldn’t be so bad so he pushed himself away from the wall and let go. The impact was jarring but he landed on his feet without injury. He got down there just as Padalecki knocked out one of the soldiers, so Jensen turned towards the second, wrestled him into a chokehold and kept him there until he stopped struggling. Together, they dragged the soldiers and the glider into the house.

 

“Now what?” Jensen panted out even though he didn’t really expect a plan, because that had been fucking crazy.  

 

But Padalecki grinned, then he held up both soldiers one after another. After assessing them, he pulled a grimace.

 

“Puny fuckers,” he said, then sighed. “Alright. Looks like you’re gonna have to dress up alone. I won’t fit into either of the uniforms. But I can play your prisoner.”

 

Jensen thought he hadn’t heard right. “You’re serious?” Dressing up as a soldier was one thing but posing as a prisoner was just playing with fire.

 

Padalecki looked at him like Jensen was stupid. “Well, you need to get on the Empire ship, right? And who gets on there? Soldiers. And prisoners.” He spread his hands in a presenting motion. “So we dress up.”

 

“We should get you a uniform too. You're not in their system yet, and if they process you...”

 

If the Empire figured out who Padalecki was, when he was from... No. They couldn't discover time travel really existed.

 

Padalecki gave him a pointed look. “You just told me we're basically fucked. Now, I really don't want to die on this piece of shit planet, and I don't want Felicia to die either. Your crew seems like nice people, so you probably want to save them too. We don't really have the time to go uniform hunting, so this is the best play. Sometimes you just gotta take a risk.”

 

And fuck it, he had a point. Jensen shook his head but he didn’t really have a lot of time. His crew was probably already taking fire and Padalecki was right, they needed to take out the ship. Jensen would just have to make sure the Empire didn't process the crazy fucker.

 

As if to prove his point he could hear gunfire from the city. Empire guns, and he could make out the sounds of older guns the resistance used and the telltale rapid fire of Alona’s triple barrel.

 

“Okay, let’s do this.”

 

Quickly, he pulled off his jacket, pants and boots before donning the dark gray Empire uniform. The legs and sleeves were plated, as were the back and chest and he felt rigid and caged in. Finally he put on the helmet that covered the upper half of his face, only leaving the mouth free.

 

He knelt on the floor to root around in his jacket pocket until he found the grenade. They’d need the ship’s crew to be as distracted as possible.

 

Then he turned around and saw Padalecki fiddling with a pair of cuffs he’d gotten from the other soldier. He was leering at Jensen. “Still a little tight on you, that uniform.”

 

“We're in a war zone,” Jensen hissed and snapped the cuffs in place. Jensen was all for the fun kind of stress relief during a mission but not when he was just a few feet away from enemy guns.

 

“I hope you have a key for those,” Padalecki remarked.

 

Jensen patted down his belt. “I’m sure it’s in here somewhere. Now let’s go.”

 

He pulled the soldier's gun and held it to Jared’s head, then started walking him towards the ship. On the way, he smashed the comm in the uniform’s wrist.

 

“Good thinking,” Jared said quietly, mouth barely moving. “Now, you know your way around these guys, how to impersonate them, right?”

 

“I’ve had a few run ins with them and I was captured once. Now be quiet!”

 

Padalecki mimicked a talking bitch face before he schooled his face into an expression of sour defeat. In tense silence, they approached the Empire’s ship. There were so many ways this could go wrong, Jensen didn’t even want to think about it. They just had to get inside, shoot up the engine and maybe the long-range guns, and then somehow get out and back to their ship. He hoped Chad would get the _Colt_ up and running quickly, including their comm system.

 

When they rounded the last corner and were in eyeshot, the two soldiers stationed at the ship's entrance noticed them. They didn't leave their posts but their attention was definitely all on them.

 

“What’s going on?” the shorter one asked when Jensen and Padalecki were close enough.

 

“This rebel jumped on my glider,” Jensen explained. “I managed to cuff him, but the glider is destroyed and the other guy didn’t make it.”

 

“Fucking rebels,” the taller one said. “Get him locked up and report to the commander.”

 

Jensen balled his right hand to a fist and raised it up to the side of his head in the EE’s salute and walked Jared inside. He couldn’t believe how easy that had been.

 

“Wow,” Padalecki said quietly. “If they’re all so gullible how have you not defeated them yet?”

 

Two soldiers were walking their way, so Jensen took the opportunity to whack Padalecki over the head with his gun. “Shut up.” He deserved it. The Empire soldiers nodded at him with approval, one of them even smirked.

 

When the two other soldiers were gone, Jensen ducked into a niche and dragged Padalecki with him.

 

“Okay, we need to get down to the engine room but they’ll never let a prisoner in there and I don’t actually want to lock you up, though I’m tempted.”

 

Padalecki shot him an unapologetic grin. “You're very testy.”

 

“A lot of good people have died in this fight. I won’t allow you to mock it.”

 

Padalecki raised his still bound hands. “Fine, I apologize.”

 

Grudgingly, Jensen nodded. “So, we could go through the air shaft probably.” He looked up to the big pipes running along over their heads. “We might fit.”

 

Padalecki didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Look, there’s someone my size!”

 

Before Jensen could stop him, Padalecki jumped out into the gangway and punched out an oncoming man dressed in the uniform of a low-ranking officer. They didn’t wear armor like the foot soldiers, just the dark dray uniform pants and the plain gray jackets. Only the officer wasn’t alone. Jensen cursed and shot the other soldier before he could raise the alarm. It was only then that Jensen noticed Padalecki’s unbound hands.

 

“How did you…” he gestured at Padalecki’s hands.

 

He was already pulling on the uniform over his own clothes. “Smuggler, remember?” he said with a grin and struggled to get into the soldier’s jacket. It stretched tightly across his broad shoulders, emphasizing their width compared to his slim waist. The pants were a little too short on Padalecki’s long legs and practically molded around his ass. Jensen forced himself to look away.

 

They had no time to lose so they made their way into the ship, walking with their heads held high and looking straightforward.

 

No one stopped them, no one tried to give them a new assignment or question them about where they were going. The Empire was a well-oiled machine, no one questioned anyone’s place in it. Jensen thought with their ill-fitting uniforms and strands of Padalecki’s hair peeking out from under his helmet, they'd be sticking out like sore thumbs, not to mention that Padalecki couldn't pull off the tight soldier stride for the life of him. But no one cared.

 

“I can't believe this is working,” Jensen mouthed as they passed two more groups of soldiers and one high ranking commander. “And walk a little straighter!”

 

“Fake it till you make it,” Padalecki said. “People only see what they expect to see. And who would expect us to break in here anyway?”

 

It wasn't like the resistance had never infiltrated the Empire before but they had never liked to advertise their defeats. Jensen wouldn't be surprised if none of these soldiers knew of any of the instances.

 

They'd made the first stretch and reached the passage to the engine rooms.

 

“Down here.” Jensen motioned at a descending shaft with a ladder. He’d studied Empire ship designs for use in battle, for places to target the guns or maybe to escape from one, but it was always practical to know the layout if you needed to find a way out – or in.

 

Down in the ship’s belly, Jensen raised his gun. “No matter how good our disguise, they won’t let us in there.”

 

Padalecki nodded and drew the gun that had come with his uniform. “Let’s do this.”

 

Their access badges didn’t work on the engine room, so Jensen banged against the door’s window and set his face in an imperious scowl.

 

A mechanic opened the door with a confused expression. “What—”

 

Padalecki swung one of his long arms and knocked the guy out cold. They pushed inside the large room, swiftly moving past the engines and taking out the other mechanics. When they were the last people standing, Padalecki looked around.

 

“So, do we just blow this up?”

 

“We could,” Jensen said with mock-assent, “or we could set a delayed explosion so we make it off this ship alive.”

 

Ignoring the jibe, Padalecki pointed at him. “I like your plan better, let’s do that.”

 

Jensen rolled his eyes and they got to work.

 

“We light a fire in here,” Jensen said, pointing at one of the large fuel lines, “it’ll crawl all the way to the turbine, that should buy us a little time.”

 

“We should also take out the hyperdrive, just to be safe,” Padalecki said.

 

Jensen looked over to the big hyperdrive motor. “I have no idea how to do that safely, Empire engine design is incredibly…”

 

Padalecki had already taken aim at one of the components.

 

“NO!”

 

“Don’t worry, Osric explained it to me once, it’s definitely this part,” Padalecki explained and fired his gun.

 

The hyperdrive block vanished in a shower of sparks and then a loud boom shook the room.

 

Padalecki pulled a grimace. “Do you think they heard that?”

 

“Unbelievable,” Jensen ground out and turned for the door. “Move your ass.”

 

They sprinted out of the room. From the door, Jensen shot the fuel line, just to be safe. He didn’t want this ship to be able to follow them at all. Then they climbed the ladder and ran through the ship. The time for stealth was over.

 

All over the ship, soldiers were running around.

 

“Fire in the hole!” Padalecki shouted gleefully. Jensen had no idea what that meant.

 

He had to focus on bowling over a soldier, and punching out another one who looked like he was going to try and stop him. Then, miraculously, they reached the exit. But where there had once been two soldiers, there were now at least ten.

 

Jensen was prepared to shoot his way out when Padalecki started waving his arms in panic and screaming. “They have a golem! Save yourselves, we have a golem on board!”

 

The soldiers seemed shocked by a screaming, waving guy in uniform who was almost a head taller than all of them and kept yelling at them.

 

“A fucking Golem! We need to run!”

 

A few soldiers actually seemed to waver. What the hell?

 

“A golem, man!” Jensen shouted and grabbed the first soldier he reached by the collar. “Do you know what that means? Do you?”

 

The soldier obviously didn’t. Neither did Jensen but then Padalecki yelled again, “The rebels have a golem,” and behind them, a loud explosion tore through the ship. Jensen turned to see a wall of fire rushing out of the open loading plank and threw himself to the side.

 

He felt the heatwave pass and in the crackling of the burning ship, the huffs and puffs from smaller explosions, he got up, found Padalecki and together they ran towards the _Colt_. The rest of the Empire soldiers were already fleeing in panic.

 

One guy was running along with them and when a troop of soldiers came rushing towards them, he yelled at them: “A golem! The rebels have a golem!”

 

It took everything for Jensen not to laugh.

 

“Oh no, it’s coming, take cover!” Padalecki yelled and jumped into a house. The soldiers followed his example and hid in the surrounding houses.

 

“Unbelievable,” Jensen muttered again while he followed Padalecki out the back of the house.

 

Padalecki beamed. “Which way?”

 

Jensen pointed towards where the _Colt_ was parked and they jogged off. They were halfway there when the comm he’d put in his pocket crackled to life.

 

“We’re online again,” Chad announced. “And the Empire seems to be offline. Captain, was that you?”

 

“I had some help,” Jensen said into the comm. “Everyone back to the _Colt_. Is everyone okay?”

 

One after another, the crew checked in. The only ones missing were Dani and Felicia.

 

Padalecki picked up on that. “Where are they?”

 

“Chad, locate Dani.”

 

“Way ahead of you,” Chad said. “She’s about four hundred paces directly to your right.”

 

Jensen pushed right and Padalecki followed. It didn't take long before they could hear gunshots.

 

“Dani’s still firing,” Jensen hissed to Padalecki who’s face was tight with worry and anger. “Don’t just rush in there.”

 

Recklessness paired with worry was one of the worst conditions to take into a fight and Padalecki had already proven his impulsive behavior.

 

His nostrils flared but he nodded at Jensen, once and choppy.

 

“Good.”

 

They rounded the corner and walked into two soldiers who were setting up a mortar.

 

For a second, they all stared at each other, then the soldiers went back to their work. “Finally,” one of them said. “We could really use some support. The filthy rebels in there just won’t quit.”

 

For a moment, Jensen had forgotten they were still wearing the uniforms. Like this, it was easy, almost child’s play, to knock the two men out.

 

“That’s some heavy artillery,” Padalecki remarked, and surveyed the scene. “I’d love to use that on the EE bastards.”

 

“We don’t know where the professor is,” Jensen reminded him. Dani’s position was easily identifiable from the gunfire but who knew where the professor was hiding.

 

“If her comm’s out, how do we get in there without her shooting at us or the EE shooting at us?” Padalecki asked. “Any secret call you two have?”

 

Jensen grinned. They actually had.

 

He fired his gun twice into the air, then he shouted, as loud as he could, “Prepare to die bloody, rebel!”

 

A beat of silence, only broken by distant gunfire and shouting, then a female voice hoarsely yelled. “Only if you come with me, asshole!”

 

Jensen smiled at Padalecki. “We’re good. C’mon on.”

 

“Wow,” Padalecki said, “you two have such a loving relationship.”

 

Jensen snorted. “Don’t let Dani hear that. She doesn’t like the emotional stuff.”

 

Padalecki shouldered the mortar like it weighed nothing, raising an eyebrow at Jensen as if he was daring him to leave it. Jensen just shrugged and started towards Dani’s hideout.

 

He kept firing his gun occasionally, so the other Empire soldiers wouldn’t be suspicious.

 

They kept low until they reached the back of the house, then they snuck inside. Jensen took off the helmet so Dani wouldn’t shoot him accidentally.

 

“Well,” Dani said, when she spotted them. “I’d scold you for taking your time but you did bring a nice present.”

 

“Where’s Felicia?” Padalecki asked while he set down the mortar.

 

“Resting,” Dani said darkly and pointed behind her.

 

The professor was sitting in the corner, pale and a hand pressed to her side. Padalecki immediately rushed to her side.

 

“How bad is it?” Jensen asked and continued aligning the mortar while Dani kept shooting.

 

“She needs help now,” Dani said. “But there are like ten guys out there and they’re good shots.”

 

Jensen nodded. They didn’t have a lot of options here. In fact, there was only one if they all wanted to make it out alive. “Then you and Padalecki get the professor out of here and I’ll give you cover.”

 

“I’ll stay with you,” Dani said immediately.

 

“He’ll have to carry her, so you’ll have to shoot. When you get her back to the ship and if I’m still shooting, come get me.”

 

“I can stay too,” Dani argued.

 

Jensen shook his head. He always took the part in a plan with the highest risk. “I’m the better long range shot, you’re better on the move.”

 

The difference in their shooting skills were minimal, but Dani understood what he was saying. They’d fought together for a long time now.

 

Dani narrowed her eyes at him. “I hate it when you make sense.”

 

Jensen grinned. “I always do. Besides, if the situation at the _Colt_ allows it, Alona and Rich can get me out.” Then he turned around. “Padalecki,” Jensen called out. “Take the professor and get her back to the ship. Sam will take care of her. Dani will shoot you out.”

 

“What about you?” Padalecki asked confused, but he wasn’t wasting time, already picking Professor Day up carefully.

 

Jensen got behind the mortar and fired off a first round to get a feeling for the gun. It had been a while since he’d shot one of these babies. “I’ll give you cover.”

 

For a moment, Padalecki stared at him and Jensen couldn’t quite read his expression but then he nodded.

 

Dani was already at a window, ready to jump out. “Jensen, I swear to the stars, if you die, I’ll sell the _Colt_ for parts.”

 

Jensen gave her a smile that was mostly teeth. “Chad would kill you. He loves that damn ship almost more than I do.” Then he started firing again.

 

Under the cover of the mortar, Dani and Padalecki left the building. Jensen kept firing mortar shells, swinging it around to cover as much ground as possible while they made off towards the _Colt_. In the time it took him to reload — slowly because he could do it only one handed so he could keep firing his blaster — he checked in with the crew. Everyone had made it back to the ship, mostly unharmed, and they were firing the ship’s guns at the EE soldiers. Seb and Romilda — as he called his favorite sniper gun — had the situation under control.

 

So Jensen kept shooting. “If someone has some spare time,” he grumbled into his comm. “I’d appreciate a hand.”

 

“Already coming for you, captain,” Alona said over the comm. “We’re gonna roll up these fuckers from behind.”

 

If they hadn’t blown up the Empire ship, the EE would be out in full force and they probably would have all died out there. But with their numbers thinned, the soldiers shooting at Jensen fell to Alona, Rich, and Traci sneaking up behind them.

 

During the whole ordeal Jensen was only grazed by a shot to the shoulder. The crew helped him lug the mortar back to the _Colt_ ; it was far too valuable to leave behind even if they would have to steal ammunition. But that was easier to come by than a gun itself. Because when it came to weapons — durability, accuracy and lightweight — the Empire was the best producer in the galaxy.

 

Under light fire, they rushed back to the ship while Seb and his trusty Romilda kept them covered. Chris took them into the air as soon as the ramp was closed.

 

“You found any survivors?” Jensen asked Rich who was leaning against the wall, with an ecstatic grin.

 

“All dead,” Rich said grimly, all joy wiped from his face. “We only found bodies. Gas attack, then they picked off the survivors one by one.”

 

“Fuck.”

 

“Yeah. I’m gonna go and drink to that.” Rich walked off  towards the mess.

 

For a second, Jensen closed his eyes. This entire stop, all for nothing. All these people… When he opened his eyes again, Sam was standing there, scanning Jensen worriedly. “You need me, captain?”

 

“No, I’m okay. How’s the professor?”

 

“She’s taken a hit but with a litte rest, she’ll be fine.”

 

Jensen allowed a tiny portion of his body to relax. “The rest of the crew?”

 

“A few scratches, but nothing serious.”

 

Relief washed through him. His people had survived another fight. Jensen nodded gratefully at Sam and made his way to the bridge. It wasn’t easy, Chris was taking them up steeply, weaving through the sky to evade the EE firing at them. Apparently some of their long-range guns had survived.

 

“How’s it looking?” Jensen asked.

 

Chris didn’t look away from the controls. “Chad worked a miracle but we took some hits. Shields are at forty percent but we’ll be out of here in a few seconds.”

 

“Okay. Get us up into hyperspace and back to base.”

 

Chris pulled a face. “The hyperdrive is the one thing Chad hasn’t fixed yet. We need to give him a few hours.”

 

Jensen watched the radar, saw two tiny dots catching up to them. “We’ve got company,” he said grimly.

 

“I see it,” Chris said, just as they left the atmosphere, shooting out into space. The _Colt_ shook, they'd taken another hit. “It’s Hawks. I hate those tiny EE fuck-ships.”

 

“Then get us the fuck away from them.”

 

Chris shot him an affronted look. “Dude, I can’t change physics. They’re faster than the _Colt_.”

 

“Then outmaneuver them,” Jensen ground out and considered their options. There was only way they were getting out of here and that was escaping into hyperspace before the Hawks could shoot them down.

 

Jensen hit the comm button. “Seb, I need you in the nest and Alona at the rear gun.”

 

“Shields at thirty percent,” Chris ground out, trying to evade the shots but there were two Hawks and the smaller ships were much more nimble than the _Colt_. They were the most dangerous small fighter ships the Empire had.

 

Jensen hit the comm for the machine room. “Chad, we need the hyperdrive.”

 

“We can’t,” Chad said. “It would burn out and we’d drop out who knows where.”

 

They were hit in rapid succession. The Hawks were closing in even though Seb and Alona were returning fire. But the Hawks had strong shields.

 

“Twenty percent,” Chris announced in a low voice.

 

“Either we’re fried somewhere out there,” Jensen said harshly, “or we die right here. Chad, give me what you can and then we’ll fix it when we get there.” He shot a worried look at Chris’s star map. “Wherever that may be.”

 

Chad grumbled but among the many swear words, Jensen heard an okay.

 

“Hit it,” he ordered Chris.

 

Chris’s hand was already on the lever and he pulled immediately. The _Colt_ surged forward, and the stars in the distance merged into long white lines as they shot off.

 

“Just in time,” Chris yelled. “A little longer, and we would’ve been dead back there.”

 

Jensen nodded and held on. “How far to the next safe port?”

 

Chris calculated. “1400 hyper units.”

 

Shit. That was one long jump.

 

“Chad, can we do 1400 hyper units?”

 

“Negative!” Chad yelled back over the comm, the background noise of the engine room almost drowning out his voice. “Get us out now, if you want me to save something.”

 

Fuck! Jensen turned back to Chris. “Chris, I need you to get us somewhere safe.”

 

Chris scanned the star chart, then his mouth pulled up at the corners. “Hold on. Five more seconds.”

 

The _Colt_ shook worryingly, still rocketing through hyperspace, and Jensen's knuckles turned white gripping Chris's chair.

 

“Chris...”

 

“Hold on, just one more sec.”

 

Jensen did and they abruptly fell out of hyperspace. The _Colt_ lurched forward, and Jensen winced when he heard an ominous bang sound from deep within the ship. The _Colt_ lost speed and then they slowly coasted towards a small, yellowish-green planet.

 

“Where are we?” Jensen asked.

 

“Fourth Rim, ninth quadrant. The Melka system.”

 

“Why does that sound familiar?” Jensen asked.

 

Chris grínned. “It's abandoned now but forty years ago the resistance had a training facility here. If we’re lucky, they left enough stuff behind to patch us up.”

 

“Alright. Take us in, I gotta go down and check on the engine.”

 

The rest of the ship was in chaos. His crew glared and bitched at not getting a warning about the hyperdrive, but Jensen brushed them off. Apart from a few ruffled feathers, they were fine. Assessing the damage was most important now and he hurried to the engine room. It was smoke filled but nothing was currently burning.

 

“Chad?” he asked into the thick white smoke.

 

“Over here,” Chad coughed. “Stars dammit, captain, half the hyperdrive is fried and the third engine is shot.”

 

Jensen looked at the damage and his heart bled. Every time the _Colt_ was hit, he could almost feel it in his own body. This ship was his home, these days, safety for him and his crew. He hated to see it hurt.

 

He put a hand on the turbine casing that was still intact and gave it a few soft pats. “Chris is going to bring us down at an old resistance camp. Maybe you can find something useful there. If not, maybe we can use the comm system to get help.”

 

Chad nodded and wiped a stain from his cheek. “Shit.”

 

“Shit,” Jensen echoed. Down here, it looked like hell.

 

“Didn’t think we’d make it,” Chad said quietly. “Thought they’d get me for sure.”

 

“Not while I’m still breathing.” Jensen gave Chad a hard look. “You’re not going back there.”

 

Chad took a deep breath and nodded. Jensen had never asked him what the Empire had done to him that had made Chad collaborate with them before he finally tried to flee. It wasn’t his place. Chad was here with them, and he was good, most of the time. When he wanted to talk, he went to Alona. For some reason, those two had developed an almost sibling like bond. Jensen was glad for it.

  
He clapped Chad encouragingly on the shoulder, then he left. They had a ship to land and a camp to scout.

 

 


	6. Chapter 5

 

Jared wasn’t a fan of planets on his best days. But an abandoned desert planet? Yellow-green large grained sand as far as the eye could see, only the occasional withered plant breaking the monotony of flat stretches of land sprawling between rugged rock formations? Living in a fucking cave in said rock formations? Jared couldn’t imagine many worse places. And he sure as fuck didn't count the last few days anywhere close to his best. In fact, they made the top three shittiest days of his life. Thankfully, Felicia had recovered quickly under Sam’s care so Jared hadn’t needed to worry about her health at least.

 

The _Colt_ ’s engine had taken a serious hit during their escape from that damn mining moon, and this was the nearest safe planet. Jared thought that was because there was nothing on this planet worth watching.

 

This was only their second day here and he already couldn’t wait for them to leave. The base was built deep into the rock, and the only thing worse than being stuck on a planet was being stuck underground. Jared came up to the surface as much as he could even if the view was depressing.

 

It was evening, at least according to his watch. The sun never really set here. The constant brightness was unnerving.

 

“You got a second?” Ackles’s deep voice startled him. The man moved as quietly as a cat.

 

“Sure.” Jared motioned to the rock next to the one he was sitting on.

 

Ackles was still walking a little stiffly, just like Jared, but he pretended to be fine. Both of them had only been grazed in the fight. Jared wasn’t bothered by a little bit of pain and, it seemed, neither was Ackles. Now he sat down easily, and pulled one of the paper rolls Jared had seen before from his pocket.

 

“You want one?” Ackles asked.

 

“I don’t even know what that is.”

 

Ackles let out a rough little laugh that made the corners of his eyes crinkle. “Sometimes I forget that not everybody knows Chris's little invention. You smoke where you're from?”

 

“Yeah, but we smoke flavored powder with vaporizers. That…” Jared stared at the little paper roll. “What even is that?”

 

“It’s a roll,” Ackles said and held it up. As long as his ring finger but slimmer, the rolled paper was stuffed with blue-purple crumbs of something that looked like dried leaves.

 

“The Empire put vaporizers on the restricted list.”

 

Jared thought his confusion must be showing on his face because Ackles elaborated. “It's a list of products that can only be manufactured and distributed by the Empire. They regulate anything that could either be dangerous or fun. People's quality of life pretty much depends on good relations with Empire traders these days.”

 

Considering the government had already started pulling stuff like that in Jared's time, it wasn't really a surprising development.

 

Jared eyed the roll in Ackles's hand. “Unless they know someone like Chris.”

 

Ackles grinned. “You got it. You sure you don't wanna try?”

 

Ackles put the roll between his lips. He lit the end with a lighter, then inhaled, his cheeks hollowing, lips pursing.

 

When he pulled the roll away from his mouth his lower lips clung to the paper for a moment before springing back into place. Ackles closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, then he expelled the smoke through his mouth, lips forming an O and slowly pushing the smoke out in wafting circles. Jared had to swallow.  It was like watching porn.

 

Jared needed to get ahold of himself. While Ackles looked like a nice distraction, Jared didn't think he could afford that right now, not when he wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Plus, he didn't want to get between the captain and his lieutenant.

 

“So?” Ackles asked, like Jared owed him an answer and it was only then that he remembered Ackles’ offer of a smoke.

 

“No thanks. I never picked up the habit.”

 

Ackles nodded. “I didn't either. It’s hard to come by, even with the resistance raiding Empire transports. But sometimes, when we’ve had a hard day, Chris is generous and shares his stash with me.”

 

“Your pilot is a good man,” Jared said.

 

He’d been the only one in the mess when Chris had eaten breakfast this morning and they’d talked about ships and the feeling of conquering the sky.

 

Ackles took another drag from his roll. “He is.” The corners of his mouth were twitching upwards, in an almost smile.

 

Jared forced himself to look out at the landscape while he thought of something to say. It was easy, actually, because there’d been something he’d wanted to say the last two days but had never found the right time.

 

“I wanted to thank you,” he said.

 

Ackles turned his head, expression wary. “For what?”

 

“For helping save Felicia. You risked your life, staying back.”

 

Ackles shrugged it off. “I had the mortar.”

 

“And about ten guys shooting at you.”

 

“It was the best plan.”

 

Slowly, Jared nodded. “Yeah, but it would have worked with any of us staying behind.”

 

Ackles fixed him with his incredibly green eyes. “I’m the captain. I don’t put my people into danger that I’m not willing to go into myself.”

 

“But we’re not your people,” Jared argued.

 

Ackles smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “You are now, Padalecki.”

 

“Jared.” He didn’t know why he’d said that but it seemed fitting. “We saved each other’s asses, I think you can call me Jared.”

 

Ackles raised his chin, looked at him thoughtfully. Then he stretched out his hand. “Then call me Jensen, Jared.”

 

Jensen’s handshake was firm and dry, his hand as calloused as Jared’s.

 

“So, Jensen,” Jared said slowly, testing out the unfamiliar name. “How’s it looking?”

 

Jensen looked back out over the plains stretching out before them. “Better than I hoped. We couldn’t get a signal to our base but Chad found enough stuff to repair the _Colt_. Two days, at most, and we’ll be out of here.”

 

“Anything I can do?”

 

“Yeah, actually. Chad needs to construct some welding block, I don’t know, but he said he needs a few strong shoulders.”

 

Jared pushed his shoulders back, rotated the joints. “I can help with that, I think.”

 

Jensen was watching him and his look wasn’t pure clinical assessment. There was appreciation in there too.

 

Jensen opened his mouth, but at that moment, Harris approached them. “There you are.”

 

Jensen snapped his mouth shut and turned to her. “What?”

 

“Chris wants you on the bridge. Don’t know why.”

 

Jensen narrowed his eyes at her, but slid down the boulder. “I’ll see you back in there, Jared,” he said.

 

Jared nodded. “Sure thing.”

 

When Jensen walked past Harris, she leaned into his space and casually plucked the roll from his hand. It was a movement that spoke of years of intimacy.

 

Harris took the roll and headed over to Jared.

 

“So, we’re doing first names now?” she asked.

 

“We fought together,” Jared said carefully. “Call me Jared.”

 

She smiled sharply. “The name's Danneel but everyone calls me Dani.”

 

Jared nodded. “Thanks for looking out for Felicia. I know you saved her life.”

 

Dani's smile had nothing of its former edge. “She’s a peculiar one, the professor, but I like her.”

 

Jared grinned. “Yeah, she’s a bookworm who’s really an adventure seeker. But occasionally she remembers that she’s supposed to be a bookworm and then she gets all scared again.”

 

Dani let out a pearly laugh. “That’s a good description. You've known her long?”

 

“Two years,” Jared said.

 

“On a ship, that's a long time to know someone.”

 

Jared nodded. Dani seemed to be in a talking mood and he was curious. This whole crew, this whole time had him curious. But he was especially curious about the captain, who had just declared him crew. “How long have you known the captain?”

 

Dani shot him a measuring look. “Jensen and I go way back.” She raised the roll to her lips and took a drag from the short stub, then she let it fall to the ground and carefully put it out with the heel of her boot. “Jensen's been with the resistance his whole life. His parents fought the Empire. And you've seen him, he's someone people notice.”

 

Jared met her eyes. “He's a noticeable guy.”

 

Dani nodded, and a smile was playing on her lips. It looked like pride, Jared thought. “He is. The council didn't like it when he took over this ship, he was years younger than any other captain, but he already had a reputation and people were rooting for him.”

 

“Were you one of them?”

 

She shook her head. “I was out with another ship back then.” A shadow passed over her face. “I got myself reassigned to the _Colt_ later. But I knew Jensen before.”

 

Jared considered this. “So you've been fighting the Empire for a long time.”

 

“Yeah.” Dani fixed him with a hard look. “There isn't really a choice. Either you roll over and let them dictate your life, let them exploit everybody who's not part of the regime or you fight.”

 

“There have to be places where you can live your life in peace.”

 

The government sucked in Jared's time too but he'd done pretty well carving out a place for him and his own.

 

Dani just scoffed. “If you can live in peace while the rest of the galaxy suffers, then you're already part of the problem.”

 

“Harsh.”

 

“You saw what they did on that mining moon, didn't you? They leveled the place and they didn't leave anyone alive. Now, we didn't have enough time to look so they might not have killed everyone but if they didn't, they're off in some prison camp, slowly being worked to death.” She crossed her arms under her chest. “Tell me you could go live peacefully in some corner of the galaxy, knowing that's what's going on.”

 

Jared drew back. Dani's eyes were glinting angrily and she was poking her finger at his chest. Most people were intimidated by his height, Dani was clearly not one of them.

 

“Okay, I don't know what you're blaming me for here. If you remember, I lived in a world without the Empire until two days ago.”

 

“It had already started back then,” she hissed. “People like you, people who don't give a shit, people who are too scared to stand up for others, you're the reason it got so far in the first place!”

 

“Hey!” Jared cut her off. “I'm not a fucking coward and I do give a shit. I give a lot of shits actually, just ask Felicia!”

 

Dani glared.

 

“You talked to her, didn't you?”

 

Felicia had told Jared last night with shining eyes about Lieutenant Dani and their conversations.

 

“So?” Dani asked but she sounded defensive.

 

“Well, then you know I took her in and gave her a job when the government froze her out. Half my crew has outstanding warrants but I'd never leave any one of them behind.”

 

She pursed her lips.

 

Jared raised his hands. “What do you want from me here?”

 

“I want to know that I can trust you to have our backs out here. This galaxy is fucking dangerous and we're not safe yet.”

 

“I don't run, and I don't hide,” Jared said quietly. “I protect my people and I don't sell out the people who give me shelter.”

 

Dani nodded, but her eyes were still narrowed. “Well, I guess only time will tell.” And with that, she turned on her heel and walked back inside.

 

Jared still stood looking after her when Rich came out of the base's gate. “Yo, the captain said you were gonna help. Get your ass inside.”

 

Letting out a deep breath, Jared followed him. This whole situation was bad enough without people giving him a hard time.

 

Inside, half the crew had gathered next to the _Colt_ and under Chad's supervision, they were jacking up the shot engine. The crew members were all able bodied and fit but none of them had Jared's broad shoulders or his upper body strength, except for Chris and Jensen maybe. He wasn’t as muscular as Jared but he had wide shoulders and right now, Jensen was holding up part of the engine with bulging biceps, clearly showing well-developed muscles. Jared walked over to lend him a hand.

 

For the next hour, Chad, with occasional support from Chris, ordered them around to turn the engine this way or that way so Chad could fix something. They helped him scavenge another engine they found in the old base for parts and they lugged back the heavy parts while the rest of the crew started slacking off or combing the base for other supplies. Jared and Jensen ended up doing most of the heavy lifting, and Jared was pleased to see that the captain was a hands-on kind of guy. There were a lot of assholes captaining ships who didn't think they should do anything but throw around orders. Jared appreciated people who pulled their weight, no matter their station.

 

“Hey!” Jensen yelled to Seb and Richard who were playing a card game Jared didn't know with DJ, the young guy laid up with a cast.

 

Jared had met the kid during their first dinner but hadn’t seen him much since because he was still recovering from a broken leg and wasn't doing much but lying around. Jared didn't think that was a bad thing, the kid didn't have the greatest aura of competency around him.

 

“Just because DJ is excused doesn't mean you are,” Jensen said, and pointed a pipe he was holding at Seb and Rich.

 

“We’ve got to keep him company,” Seb said with a posh accent Jared thought he'd heard before somewhere on the Fourth Rim.

 

Rich nodded. “Sam said happiness helps with the healing.”

 

Jensen gave them a look that said he was not impressed. “Just because you two weaklings can't help out here--”

 

“Hey!” Rich yelled and Seb slapped a hand to his heart in mock-hurt.

 

“Doesn't mean you can't make yourselves useful,” Jensen continued unfazed. “Traci said she found a door to a storage shelter downstairs and she and Alona are busting it open. Get your asses down there and help them. That's going to improve _my_ happiness.”

 

Rich and Seb grumbled, but they put down the cards and made their way towards the back of the cave where a narrow stairway lead to the underground.

 

DJ, a slim guy in his twenties, whose head looked a little too big for his body and whose ears were trying to make up for the width his shoulders didn't reach, carefully climbed off the box he was sitting on and clumsily hopped over to them on his crutches.

 

“I can help too, Captain,” he said to Jensen and he did a bad job hiding his eagerness.

 

“You need to rest,” Jensen said and his voice lacked the warmth it usually had when he talked to his crew.

 

Dejected, DJ limped off towards the ship.

 

“You don't like him?” Jared asked when DJ was out of earshot.

 

Jensen looked at him in surprise. “Why do you ask?”

 

Jared shrugged and helped Jensen lift the piece Chad wanted to weld next. “There's just something in the way you talk to him. You're different with the rest of your people.”

 

“Set it down on my mark,” Jensen ground out. “Now.”

 

They lowered the heavy pipe onto the engine. Jensen wiped the sweat off his brow, leaving a streak of dirt next to his right eyebrow. “Was it that obvious?”

 

Incredulous, Jared looked at him. “Did you see him slink out of here? He looked like you just killed his favorite pet. So, what's the deal with him?”

 

The captain didn’t strike Jared as a man who would treat people unfairly. But he also didn’t seem like a man who would be cruel to people less competent than others and DJ was obviously hurt by Jensen’s rejection. There had to be a reason why Jensen didn’t like DJ and Jared wanted to know. He’d have to be on a ship with the guy for a few more weeks too.

 

“He's the only crew member I didn’t pick,” Jensen said reluctantly, dragging a hand through his hair. “His father is on the resistance council and he has this idea that his son is going to follow in his footsteps, become the next great resistance fighter.”

 

Jared pulled a grimace. “And that's not gonna happen.”

 

Jensen shook his head. “He gets injured every few months, he's a terrible shot and he's a nervous talker. His tactical assessment is shit and he has no sense for danger. He tries, but he's just not cut out for this life. I keep hoping he'll quit on his own.”

 

“Doesn't look like it. He seemed eager to please.” He shot Jensen a look. “Eager to please you, actually.”

 

With a groan, Jensen rubbed his face. “A few of the younger people have very romantic ideas about captaining a resistance ship. And some of the things we do get blown way out of proportion in the camps.”

 

Jared smirked. “And it doesn't help that you got this command at your age.”

 

“Yeah.” Jensen let his head fall back and looked at the rocky ceiling with an expression of defeated annoyance. “It's ridiculous.”

 

“Because you're their hero?”

 

Jensen glared at him.

 

Jared just laughed. Jensen’s annoyance was kind of adorable. “Hey, if you're young and good-looking and have a badass crew like that, they're gonna tell stories about you.”

 

With quirked eyebrows, Jensen looked at him. “They tell stories about you, where you're from?”

 

“Are you saying I’m handsome and badass?”

 

“Badass _crew._ ” Jensen shrugged casually. “And I'm just returning the compliment.”

 

Before Jared could reply, loud noises drew Jared's eyes over to the _Colt_. Alona and Seb were loading boxes into the ship under Dani's supervision. Right. They had a ship to fix if he ever wanted to get back to his own crew. He didn't have time to flirt with the captain.

 

“My crew is pretty badass,” Jared said, then looked at Jensen deliberately. “Speaking of crew. Does your lieutenant have a problem with me?”

 

“Why?” Jensen asked sharply.

 

“Well, she almost took my head off for not being in the resistance or something.”

 

Jared wasn't a snitch but if Dani had issues with him, he needed to know. Antipathies on a spaceship could get dangerous quickly.

 

“Ah,” Jensen said heavily. He obviously knew what this was about but didn't seem inclined to explain.

 

Chad came back from wherever he'd run off to, triumphantly waving a piece of metallic yarn in his hands. “Found it. This will work much better to connect the wires.”

 

In silence, Jared and Jensen lifted and pulled engine parts on Chad's orders until he was satisfied.

 

“All right, I think that's all for now. I'm gonna weld the pipes together and then I just gotta cut new blades for the turbine. I won't need your muscles for the next few hours.”

 

“You want a drink?” Jensen asked Jared who nodded gratefully. He was sweaty and parched.

 

Jensen led him to the base's kitchen and got two bottles of water out of the fridge. The whole base ran on solar power and there was enough of that on this planet.

 

“Dani has issues,” he said apropos of nothing.

 

Jared emptied half the bottle, then looked at Jensen. “Issues that she needs to take out on me?”

 

Jensen gave him a wry smile. “She's been burnt badly. You look a bit like someone who let her down. Let us all down, actually.”

 

Slowly, Jared nodded. He could understand that. “Is there something I can do about that?”

 

Jensen shook his head. “This has nothing to do with you. She'll warm up to you eventually. Unless you sell us out, of course,” he added with a sharp grin.

 

“I told you, I just want to go home,” Jared said. “And I'm not a friend of the government, not mine and not yours.”

 

“That's good to hear,” Jensen said.

 

If Jensen wanted to say anything else, pick up their conversation from before, Jared never found out because at that moment, something out in the hangar crashed and Chad's “motherfucker!” cut through the silence.

 

“That doesn't sound good,” Jared said but Jensen was already up and jogging towards the noise. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Jared followed.

 

In the hangar, Chad was standing in front of the big engine turbine that needed new blades. Half the crew was already gathered and watched Chad anxiously, whose head and shoulders had disappeared between the remaining turbine blades.

 

“Somebody give me a fucking light,” he ordered and his voice bounced of the metal blades.

 

Alona leaned in and handed him a small flashlight. In tense silence, everybody waited.

 

“Chad,” Jensen finally broke the silence. “In case you didn't notice, you’ve got us pretty worried here.”

 

Clanging came from inside the turbine.

 

“Should we be worried?” Jensen's voice was calm but Jared could see the tense lines in his face.

 

“Somebody hand me a twelve gauge wrench.”

 

Again it was Alona who passed him the tool.

 

After a few moments, Chad emerged red-faced from the turbine, the short hairs on the top of his head standing up in all directions, the longs ones in the back sweatily clumped together.

 

“Alright, the top section of the turbine needs to come off. Where's our new mountain man passenger?”

 

“Do you mean me?” Jared asked amused.

 

Chad nodded. “Yeah. I mean, have you looked in the mirror?”

 

Jared shook his head but walked over to him.

 

“Alright,” Chad ordered, “you grip it here,” he pointed at the bracket on the side, “and captain, if you could grab it here, you can lift the top off.”

 

Again, on Chad's command, Jared and Jensen lifted the engine part. The turbine piece was heavy and for a second Jared thought he'd throw his back out but they managed to put it down safely. Jensen wiped his face with his hand and gave Jared a satisfied grin. Jared grinned back automatically.

 

Chad had already climbed into the turbine, kneeling between the blades. “Shit. Motherfucking shit.”

 

“What?” Jensen’s head whipped around, looking tensely at Chad.

 

Chad stood and held up a ring of intricate wiring just a bit bigger than the palm of his hand.

 

“The ionic transformator is broken.”

 

“So fix it.”

 

“Fix it?” Chad asked incredulously. “The core is isolated with annium.”

 

Confused, Jared looked at the horrified expressions around him. “Why is that such a problem?” he asked. Annium was used in most engines.

 

Jensen shot him a frustrated look. “Remember the restricted government list? Annium's on it.”

 

“Shit.”

 

“Yeah.” Jensen dragged a hand through his hair again. Jared got the feeling it was his stress habit.

 

“Can you use something else?” Jensen asked.

 

Chad shook his head. “With the triple engine design, I need it to hold the core. We’ll have to scrounge every piece of machinery in the base for annium and hope we find enough to fix the tear.”

 

Grimly, Jensen nodded. “You heard him guys. We're gonna search the base for everything that could have annium in it. Alona, you’re gonna take Traci and Seb down to the basement. Dani, you and Rich check the top level.”

 

Dani looked at Jensen. “What are you gonna do?”

 

“There's an outpost ten miles from here. I'm gonna take one of the carts and have a look.”

 

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Dani said immediately.

 

“There's no one here but us,” Jensen said impatiently.

 

Dani looked at him sideways. “No one goes off alone.”

 

Jensen rolled his eyes, then they fell on Jared. “Fine. Jared, you up for a little field trip?”

 

“Sure.” Jared didn't particularly like the scenery, but he always felt better when he had something to do.

 

So he helped Jensen get one of the old wheeled vehicles out of container and then they drove out into the desert. The vehicles had two seats in the front and a big trunk in the back and Jensen drove it across the rocky plain at breakneck speed. It was a bumpy ride but Jared didn't mind. The feeling of the ground rushing by in blurry green-brown lines was exhilarating and Jensen exuded calm and confidence handling the vehicle.

 

The outpost was nothing but a giant shed with a broken communication antenna on top. But in the shed, they found a small fighter ship.

 

“This looks promising,” Jared said and Jensen nodded.

 

Together, they opened the engine compartment and started looking for annium. It was mostly used as connector material in the wire harnesses that relayed data to the engine. They dug out a few tiny pieces, but it wasn't much.

 

“Chad can melt everything we find together.”

 

“What if we don't find enough?” Jared asked. It was a worrying prospect.

 

Jensen didn't seem too concerned. “There's another fighter ship back at base. It's in bad shape but Chad said he can get it running with a few parts from the _Colt_. Then someone can fly out of here and get help. It's risky, of course, but it's an option.”

 

“You seem pretty optimistic about this whole thing,” Jared remarked.

 

The corner of Jensen’s mouth pulled up in a half-grin. “Chad's a miracle worker. He'll get us off this planet.”

 

“And then?”

 

Jensen paused from picking apart the engine and leaned back again the small ship. It pushed his hips forward and his dark jacket rode up, the gray shirt underneath just barely covering the top of his pants. “We fly back to base, talk to the council.”

 

“You’re gonna tell them the truth.” It wasn't a question.

 

Jensen nodded. “These flakes you talked about, they're powerful objects.”

 

Jared looked up from the engine at Jensen. “What are you saying here?”

 

“You want to go back, right?”

 

Jared watched Jensen carefully. If the captain was going where Jared wanted this to go... “Of course I want to go back.”

 

Slowly Jensen nodded. “I've been thinking. What if, in your time, Pellegrino never got the power he was after?”

 

“You want to change the past,” Jared stated.

 

“We aren't winning now,” Jensen said darkly. “And it doesn't look like it's going to turn around in the near future. It's a hard fight and we've been fighting it for too long. People are suffering, dying. If there's a way to prevent all that...”

 

It was exactly what Jared had hoped Jensen would propose. If they wanted to go back with Jared, they'd do everything in their power to help Felicia and him find the remaining flakes. Still, for Jensen to speak so easily about changing time...

 

“What about now?”

 

“How do you mean?” Jensen asked but there was something in his eyes that told Jared the captain already knew where the question was going.

 

“If you change the past, you change this present. You have no idea how that would work out for you.”

 

Jensen nodded.

 

“You may never be born,” Jared pressed. He needed to make sure Jensen would be on his side. But there was no reason to worry. Jensen's eyes were clear and open when he answered.

 

“Then I'd never know. Look, I don't expect you to understand this, but I've been watching this galaxy bleed and hurt my entire life. I've buried friends and family and I’ve listened to too many stories of loss and suffering. If there's a way to make it stop, to prevent it from happening, then I'm going to take it.”

 

Jensen’s expression was fierce. He meant it. He meant every word. He'd give up his existence to prevent this war. And he was right, Jared didn't understand. Though he couldn’t help but admire Jensen’s dedication and utter lack of fear. But that wasn't important. The important thing was that he'd help Jared to get home.

 

“What will the council say?” Jared asked.

 

“They have to say yes,” Jensen said and his expression was stormy. “They work for the peace of the galaxy.”

 

Jared thought that was probably a very optimistic view but at least, Jensen was on board. It was the first hurdle.

 

“Your words to the stars,” Jared said.

 

Jensen shot him a confused look, but put the engine piece down. “If you’re done with that we can go back.”

 

Jared put down the part of the engine he had examined. “Nothing in here.”

 

Jensen nodded and walked out of the hut. Jensen followed. For the first time he noticed that the captain had bowlegs. Jared decided to focus on that for now and not what the ominous resistance council would do with time-travel information. Jensen was a really good distraction.

 

Back at the camp, Jensen went to supervise the annium gathering and Jared went to find Felicia. She had helped with the annium search but now she was back in front of a screen, sifting through the history of the last two hundred years they had missed. Last night, she had given Jared the cliff-notes and he was looking forward to another history report. Jared wasn't really a bookworm.

 

Jared let himself fall onto his bed, watching Felicia in an all too familiar pose – shoulders hunched, eyes slightly narrowed staring at the screen in concentration. Every now and then, her mouth would move while she chewed absently on the inside of her cheeks.

 

Jared cleared his throat. Felicia jumped.

 

“Fuck, Jared!”

 

Jared suppressed a grin. “Anything interesting?”

 

“Oh my stars, yes!”

 

“Anything I need to know to figure out a way back?”

 

She shot him a glare, then went back to her notepad. “Well, the war is not going well for the resistance. From what I can tell, the planets who joined them don't produce enough military resources. The Empire has all the important facilities and any kind of education the resistance wants to do, they have to do in secret. If someone would have given me documents like this from the past and asked me how I think it turned out, I would have said, the resistance would have been defeated or pushed into irrelevance.

 

Jared sucked in a breath. “That's bad. But it might help us.”

 

Felicia looked up from the screen. “Did you talk to the captain?”

 

Last night, they'd discussed finding a way back again and they agreed they needed the captain and then the resistance council on their side. Felicia was adamant she'd need their resources for research.

 

“I did. Jensen is on board. He wants to prevent any of this from ever happening, even if it means he'll never live.”

 

Felicia nodded slowly. “I talked to Dani today, just a bit, but she said something similar.”

 

“Well, I'm glad she likes one of us,” Jared grumbled.

 

“I asked her about that too.” Felicia's voice was even but a faint blush was blooming on her cheeks. Felicia was crushing hard.

 

“She didn't want to talk about it, but she said you reminded her of someone. I told her that you're a good guy, a good captain.”

 

“Thanks, Felicia.”

 

“I mean it, you know.” Felicia's eyes were intense and she leaned towards Jared. “I thought joining you on the _Libby_ would only be a short stint but I couldn't leave.”

 

Jared grinned. “The _Libby_ is pretty irresistible.”

 

Felicia rolled her eyes. “Stars, Jared, would you be serious for one fucking second. I'm trying to say something here.”

 

Jared stood and walked over to her. “And I hear you. I never regretted taking you on. You’ve become a full member of the crew, even though you didn’t want to at first. But right now you're doing the I-really-like-you-even-though-I-never-said-it speech in case something goes wrong here, and that's not gonna happen.”

 

For a moment, Felicia chewed on her lip, then she looked up at him. “Can we hug, at least?”

 

Wordlessly, Jared pulled her up and against his chest. The crown of her head didn't even reach his chin but her arms wrapped around his waist with a vice-tight grip. Jared held her close. He hadn’t lied before. She was part of the crew, and he cared for her as much as he did for the others.

 

“We're gonna find a way back and I'm gonna be here. With you, every step of the way.”

 

“I know,” she said into his chest. “And I promise, I'll get us back home.”

 

Jared patted her head and hoped like hell she was right.

 

 

  


The next few days dragged on. The _Colt_ 's crew scoured the entire base for any engines they could find to extract the annium. Jared helped. Sometimes he worked with Jensen, but when the captain was busy with other things, Jared went off with someone else. Never Dani, but she behaved politely towards him during meals. Once, he passed her the spice mix before she asked for it and she shot him a half-smile. Jared had his suspicions that she was too proud to talk to him after snapping at him but he wasn't going to push it.

 

In the evenings, the crew sat together, ate and drank moonshine that burned his esophagus. Chris played guitar, an old school instrument Jared only knew from antique collections. Chris's instrument didn't look like someone would pay money for it, the wooden frame was scratched and dirty, and it didn't have any of the engravings or ornaments that drove up the price.

 

When Jared asked him about it, Chris raised his eyebrows. “You know something about guitars?”

 

Jared shrugged. “I smuggled anything people paid money for. I knew a few music collectors.”

 

Chris nodded. “Yeah, old fashioned instruments aren't really in use anymore. But when you've got to save energy because you never have enough fuel, you pick up a few things. And I've always been good with instruments.”

 

Jared toasted him. “I'll drink to that.”

 

A night later, Jensen joined them. He sang with Chris and while Jared had noticed, in an absent kind of way, that the captain had a good voice, deep and smooth, with a rough edge to it, it was even better when he sang.

 

Alona and Rich taught Jared how to play _Snipe_ , a card game where you had to guess the other person's cards and got to keep them if you were right.

 

Felicia was there with them, during the evenings, though Jared had to drag her away from her screen. He understood that she wanted to catch up but she needed to take breaks.

 

Three days into their search for annium, Felicia was waiting for Jared in their cabin, eyes not glued to the screen for once. As matter of fact, the screen was blank.

 

“What's going on?” Jared asked.

 

“The captain had a chat with me today, about the Loriyan flakes,” Felicia said.

 

Jared's hands balled to fists and he prepared for the worst. “What did he want?”

 

“He wanted to know everything. He's a much better listener when it comes to history than you are, by the way.” She gave him a pointed look, but it was teasing.

 

Jared was not in the mood for teasing. It was possible he'd read the captain wrong or that Jensen would make plans for the flakes without him. “Felicia, why did he want to know?”

 

“Because he wanted to know how many are still out there, what they do and if I can find them. And before you worry, he assured me that he'd help us get back. Besides, from what I read and what he said, our time actually is the turning point. In about half a year from when we left, Pellegrino will push through the laws that lay the foundation of the Empire.”

 

Jared relaxed. “So he'll help us go back.”

 

She nodded. “And join us. Or send people with us. We'll need more than just the crew to stop Pellegrino.”

 

Jared froze. “Which crew?”

 

“The _Libby's_ ,” Felicia said matter of factly.

 

“You want _us_ to stop Pellegrino?”

 

“Don't you?” Felicia asked stumped. “I mean look around!”

 

“But this is not our fight,” Jared said harshly. “I have a crew to look after. I don’t even know if they got away back there in the first place! So excuse me if I have other things to worry about than some future rebellion.”

 

Felicia glared and Jared glared back. “We’ve had this discussion before,” he said, trying to moderate his voice. “You already asked me to fight the government and my answer hasn’t changed.”

 

“But knowing what we know now...” Felicia shook her head.

 

“No. Everyone on the _Libby_ joined my crew because they needed a safe place, and so did you. And if we make the _Libby_ a rebel ship, it won't be.”

 

Felicia's nostrils flared. “Fine. I have to accept that. But if resistance fighters go back with us, I'll do everything I can to help them.”

 

“And leave the _Libby_ ,” Jared said. He didn't manage to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

 

Felicia's expression didn't soften. “It was bad enough when Pellegrino just defunded archeology. Now, they've centralized the entire education system. There is no free and independent learning anymore. There's no diversity in thought. Knowledge, the entire reason why I became an archaeologist, is restricted and censored. Not to mention the whole people dying thing,” she tacked on angrily.

 

Jared clenched his jaw. He knew the world sucked now, but he had responsibilities. He wouldn’t let anyone from his crew get involved in a dangerous fight for other people's benefit.

 

“I'm not putting my people in danger,” Jared said.

 

Something in Felicia’s expression softened. “Look, I know that the crew is important to you, and Kim said--”

 

“Look, I don't know what Kim told you, but it doesn't matter. We're not getting involved. We can take however many people can hold on to us when we go back but that's it.”

 

Felicia pursed her lips. “The captain seems to be under the impression you'll be some kind of guide for the past, with your ship and your connections.”

 

Jared licked his lips. “That's his own interpretation. I never made any promises.”

 

“We can't lie to him.”

 

“We're not and you'll be helping him.”

 

“Yeah, but we'll need you too!” Felicia looked at him imploringly. “You know all the routes, all the ports you can go where no one asks questions. You know basically everyone who rides without a Confederation charter, and every place to get guns.”

 

Jared drew in a deep breath. He was not getting involved and he needed Felicia off his back. “You know all the intellectual people, people in politics. That's what you need anyway.”

 

Felicia was not convinced and she opened her mouth to protest. Jared cut her off. “No. Look, this is my decision. If you want to go off and fight for the greater good, fine, but no one ever gets happy doing that and you sure as shit don't get a reward.” Jared leaned forward. “And there's no need to tell Jensen. He's on our side and we can't rock that boat. Got it?”

 

“I don't like it,” Felicia hissed.

 

“Neither do I.”

 

With a huff, she leaned back. “Fine. I won't tell him. And look, what Kim said, with your grandparents--”

 

“They weren’t my grandparents,” Jared ground out. This was why he didn't like to talk about his life with people.

 

Felicia waved it away. “Whatever they were, I get where you're coming from. But this is different.”

 

This time, Felicia talked over him when Jared opened his mouth.

 

“This is different, and I think you should think about it, instead of just shutting it down. That's all I ask. I know you’re not a selfish asshole.”

 

“You’re too kind,” Jared muttered.

 

Felicia grinned and continued. “I said it before, you’re a good man. You’ll do the right thing. And it could take weeks before we get back. So, I won't say anything to Jensen because as far as I'm concerned there's nothing to say.” She looked at him triumphantly. “We'll talk again when we actually have the flake.”

  
Jared rolled his eyes. He was not going to change his mind but at least he had Felicia off his case.

 

 


	7. Chapter 6

 

 

Jensen felt like the weight of the _Colt_ fell from his shoulders when his ship lifted up into the air after seven days on the ground. It had taken them four days to gather the annium and another day for Chad to fix the turbine's ionic transformator. From here, it would take them about ten days to reach Camp White. There were a few stretches they couldn't do in hyperspace, a few detours they had to take. The Fourth Rim was a minefield, both figuratively and literally. They couldn't fly along the Rim, they had to take a few excursions through the Third and Fifth Rim to get to Camp White.

 

Even though it was dangerous out here, he was glad for the time he had to prepare.

 

He’d already talked to his crew and they were all onboard with looking for the flakes. They agreed on their importance and that no one else could have the flakes. Jensen had talked to DJ too and the boy’s eyes had lit up when Jensen implored the importance of secrecy to him. Remembering Jared pointing out DJ’s hero worship for him, Jensen had forced himself to smile at DJ. It wasn’t the boy’s fault his father was an asshole with unrealistic expectations. Jensen wouldn’t be so bothered by it if DJ didn’t put himself and the crew in danger with his incompetence. Maybe he could get him off ship when they reached the base. Captain Olsson owed him a favor and he did mostly supply transport. It was as safe a gig as you could get if you flew for the resistance.

 

For now, they all knew to keep their mouths shut and to prepare for a new mission that might be more of a treasure hunt. The idea of travelling back to the past to change the present  — it was nothing he could demand of his crew, not when there wasn’t a way back, when they’d have to leave everything behind. He’d talked to them about it, Alona and Chad had asked about time travel options before he ever mentioned it and so far, they agreed it was the right play. They all knew how dire the situation out there was, how few new people had joined the resistance. They had noticed that during their last stay on base, they’d only gotten ammunition for the big rear gun and Seb’s sniper nest, but not the photon torpedoes at the ship’s front. The resistance was in trouble and the crew knew it. So they were willing to back his play.

 

He’d be glad for everyone who volunteered but he couldn’t ask this of anyone. He had a feeling most of them would come with him anyway, but Rich had an on and off thing with Rekha, one of the analysts in Camp White, and Traci had a strong connection with her two younger brothers who flew with other crews. But all of this was a conversation for when they actually found the flakes, which was still highly hypothetical.

 

First, he needed to talk to the council anyway. He had a feeling his plan wouldn't go over well with all of them. They would believe the time travel eventually – Jared and Felicia were proof of that, and with the information about the flakes the professor had given him, he had enough to back up the story. But where to go from there was another question. A few might think it a fool's errand. Finding the flakes would be a long shot, even with Felicia's knowledge. There were a few people on the council who wouldn't like wasting resources for a mission like this. He'd talked to Dani about it because she had a better understanding of politics and she'd agreed that if he offered to lead the search for it, that might help. Half the people who didn't like wasting resources were part of the group who hadn't liked his command in the first place.

 

Then there were those who'd back his plan but Jensen suspected they would be the minority. As Dani had rightly pointed out, not all of them were the self-sacrificing kind. Like most people with power, they weren't keen on risking what they had. And most of them hadn't seen the fight in a while, some never. They lived in the safety of the resistance camps, making plans, pulling strings in the background, talking to other planets’ leaders to join them. They didn't see the death and the destruction all over the galaxy.

 

Jensen would have to find a way to convince the council to let them go back which would be the most difficult part of his plan. But there was no other way. The resistance was bleeding fighters and ships and not enough planets were joining in.

 

There was a knock on the door and he looked up to see Dani standing there with two glasses of clear liquid. She had her own stash of shine she got out occasionally.

 

“Did you send a message to the council?”

 

“Yeah. No details, just that we needed a closed-door meeting.”

 

“Have you decided?” she asked, referring to her remarks that the council probably wouldn’t let him do with the flakes whatever they wanted.

 

“Well,” Jensen said slowly. “I have to try to convince the council. If we go the official way, we’ll have support and more resources. But I made Jared and Felicia a promise. I told them I'd help them to get home. And who would I be to break that promise?”

 

Dani held out a glass for him and Jensen took it gratefully. “So you’d want to go yourself?”

 

Jensen nodded. “I always go where the fight is.”

 

“We won't have a way of getting back,” Dani said slowly.

 

It was a terrifying thought. Leaving the life he knew, the resistance he had grown up in, he wasn’t sure how he’d fare without all that. But he had much less to leave behind than others.

 

“It’s going to be hard,” Jensen admitted. “But someone has to go and I’m not afraid. Plus, I don't have a family here I’d have to leave behind.”

 

Dani shot him a reproachful look. “You have us.”

 

“I do,” Jensen said slowly, watching Dani's face for clues.

 

She took the few steps that separated them and clinked their glasses together. “Lucky for you, we're coming with you.”

 

“We?” Jensen asked past the relief spreading through him. He'd counted on her coming with him and he'd happily take the rest of the crew too. “Who else did you talk to?”

 

“So far only Chris. But you don’t think any of us would let you go alone?”

 

“Felicia said the flakes are one-way tickets,” Jensen pointed out. “Some of the crew have people they won’t want to leave behind.”

 

“You underestimate their loyalty to you and the cause.”

 

Jensen drank. He knew his crew was loyal, just as loyal as he was to them, but this would be a big step. He didn’t know if she was predicting their behavior correctly but she usually had a good handle on their crew.

 

“For the past five years, the _Colt_ has been my home.” Dani smiled wistfully. “We spend more time on this ship than anywhere else. We’re together all the time. This here, it’s family. It’s home. And if we go back, we’ll still be family. Padalecki’s ship might be our home then for a while, but we’ll figure something out.”

 

Jensen tried not to make a face at that but when Dani laughed he knew he hadn’t been successful.

 

“I'm more worried about you leaving the _Colt_ behind,” Dani said with a teasing tone in her voice.

 

Jensen reached out to the wall and patted it lovingly. “I'll definitely miss it. But it's all about sacrifice, right?”

 

Dani snorted. Then she plopped down in one of Jensen's chairs, toed off her boots and put her feet on the table.

 

“Make yourself at home,” Jensen said but his exasperation was only an afterthought.

 

Dani raised her glass again. “To the future. Or, to the past.”

 

Jensen clinked his glass to hers and sat down across from her. “And you won't mind going back with Jared?”

 

“Why would I?”

 

“It didn't look like you were getting along much better.”

 

Dani's heated attitude towards Jared had cooled off over the last few days; at least she hadn’t been hostile towards him. But she hadn't made a peace offering either.

 

“Eh.” Dani made a throwaway hand wave. “He hasn’t done anything to piss me off and the more I watch him, the less he acts like Michael.”

 

“You could tell him that,” Jensen suggested impishly.

 

Dani gave him the stink eye. “There's nothing to tell. Anyway, what do you care?”

 

“I want the people on my ship to get along.”

 

She smirked at him. “Are you sure it's not because you like him? Because I noticed that you and the good captain from the past spend a lot of time together these days. First your little trip to go look for annium, then all your conversations at dinner after everyone has left. And I saw you checking him out.”

 

“That's not—“ Jensen started to protest.

 

“Ah ah.” Dani pointed at him. “You have the hots for our tall time traveler. Not that I blame you.”

 

Jensen sighed. “I think he's attractive,” he said because there was no point denying that. “But that's it. He's easy to spend time with and I think he's handling the whole time travel thing surprisingly well.”

 

Her expression told Jensen she didn't think that was all there was to it.

 

“So I'm attracted to him. That doesn't mean anything.”

 

“Of course not!” Dani looked offended that he thought that was what she meant. “I'm just saying, you're looking, he's looking back. So go get some.”

 

Jensen arched his eyebrows. “Do you want the same encouragement from me for the professor?”

 

That got Dani's feet off the table.

 

“She's intriguing,” Dani admitted. “And pretty. But she doesn't look the one-night-moving-on kind of girl. So I think I better stay away from that.”

 

Neither of them were the relationship type. For Jensen the fight had always come first and Dani had never attempted another relationship after Michael. Jensen had tried to talk to her about it, but she nipped every conversation about it in the bud.

 

“It just took me a while to figure out I'm like you when it comes to relationships,” she'd said.

 

Jensen had tried to explain that he wasn't against relationships, that he just had to focus on the war and that most people wanted more attention in a relationship than he could give them. But Dani shrugged him off. So Jensen had given up on trying to explain.

 

“Well,” Jensen said, “I think the _Stanford_ is supposed to dock back on base in a couple of days.”

 

Dani's lips pulled apart in a dirty grin. “Well, that's something to look forward to.”

 

The _Stanford_ did supply runs mostly, bringing food and medication to planets cut off from Empire support because they were suspected resistance helpers. And the Stanford's sharpshooter was a tall, leggy blonde named Adrianne. She and Dani had a longstanding fling.

 

“Speaking of the _Stanford_ ,” Dani said and then she and Jensen spent the rest of the evening shooting the shit and talking resistance gossip. It was a good way to end the day, even though Jensen had a slight headache the next morning. Dani's shine packed a lot of punch.

  
  


Jensen was on his way back from the cells – he didn't like spending time with Alaina and her men but he had to check on them occasionally – when he heard raised voices from upstairs.

 

He took the stairs two at a time and ran through the hallways. In the mess, he found Chad, Jared, and Felicia.

 

Felicia was sitting in a chair, pale and hands tightly folded in her lap. Chad was leaning against the counter with his tablet and Jared was pacing the room agitatedly.

 

“They can't just be _gone_.” He was shouting, looking at Chad with horrified anger. “There have to be _records_!”

 

Chad drew back. Jared was a tall guy and his anger was intimidating. “Yeah, but I can't access those. I need an Empire mainframe access for that. But Jared, if there aren't any further records, then they died in that prison.”

 

Jared shook his head violently. “No. They’re too good, they would have gotten out.”

 

“What's going on?” Jensen asked and stepped into the room.

 

Chad was visibly relieved but nothing about Felicia’s and Jensen's demeanor changed.

 

“Jared here asked me to look up what happened to his crew,” Chad explained.

 

Well shit.

 

“Jared, I'm really sorry about whatever happened to your crew, but you can’t take it out on Chad.”

 

Jared froze, then he let out a long breath and rubbed his face with both hands. “Shit. Sorry, man. I didn't mean to yell at you.”

 

“Hey, no worries,” Chad said, already back to his usual carefree attitude. “It's a lot.”

 

Wearily, Jensen sat down next to Felicia. “What happened to them?”

 

Jared ground his jaw but didn't answer. Felicia was still looking at her hands.

 

“They were picked up by an Empire — sorry, Confederation patrol after these two time traveled here,” Chad explained. “Their whole crew was incarcerated on smuggling charges. A few of them were eventually released but Jared’s pilot, his first mate, and two crew members already had outstanding warrants. They were transported to one of the prison planets. They tried to break out. His first mate and one crew member died, the pilot and the other crew member were recaptured. There is no record of their deaths.”

 

So they'd rotted away in a dark hole on a prison planet. “Shit.” This time, Jensen said it out loud.

 

“It's my fault,” Jared said into the silence. “We knew they were coming. If I hadn’t touched the fucking flake, we would've made it out of there.”

 

“You don't know that,” Jensen said.

 

“We would have made it,” Jared said stubbornly. “But they would’ve searched for us, they would've wasted time. I thought Gen would make the tough choice, get them out of there, but...”

 

“She’d never leave you,” Felicia said hollowly. “She puts on a front, pretends she doesn’t care but they all love you Jared. They would never leave you behind.”

 

A muscle in Jared’s jaw twitched. “And I won't leave them. We're going back there, Felicia.”

 

She looked at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “We will. We won't let that happen.”

 

Jared looked over to Jensen. “Can I still count on you to back us up?”

 

“When we find the flake,” Jensen said, choosing his words deliberately, “we're going to save your crew and then depose Pellegrino. Deal?”

 

Jared just nodded, not looking at him. He was staring at the screen, looking at the mug shot of a blond man defiantly smirking with a bloody mouth.

 

Jensen walked past Jared to get to the door leading to the bridge. He stopped next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Jared looked at him with dark and stormy eyes. Jensen had never been close enough before to see that they were of indeterminable color, browns, greens, and blues swirling around a golden-ringed iris.

 

It took Jensen a second to tear his eyes away and leave.

 

 

 

  


Later that evening when Jensen was alone in his cabin, finalizing the evacuation plan for Camp Blue, his thoughts kept drifting back to Jared. The man had just learned that his whole crew had died because he hadn’t been there to protect them. Jensen had never lost a crew member from the _Colt_ , but he’d held soldiers dying in battle and he’d seen more than one crew member die, back when he was flying under other captains. Losing someone on your ship, someone you cared about and who was under your command was the worst thing Jensen could imagine.

 

Jared had Felicia, but something he’d seen in Jared’s eyes before, the intensity with which he cared, made Jensen reach for a bottle of shine and two glasses.

 

The door to Jared’s and Felicia’s cabin was open and no one was there. Curiously, Jensen made his way to the mess. Quiet voices drifted from the dimly lit small common room. Jensen took a peek and spotted two heads of red hair, one bright copper, the other one a rich auburn, bent together. With silent steps, Jensen retreated back into the corridor and left the two women alone. The mess itself was empty and there weren’t many other places Jared could be. Jensen considered the escape hatch but then he heard the faint thudding sounds of a fist hitting a punching bag.

 

Down in the former cargo bay that Jensen had converted into a training room, he found Jared furiously punching the heavy bag hanging in the corner. He’d taken off his shirt and was barefoot, dancing lightly despite his broad frame. Sweat was running down his back and chest.

 

For a long moment, Jensen couldn’t decide if he wanted to intrude or should withdraw but watching Jared’s strong muscles move under his tan sweat-shiny skin was hypnotic.

 

Jensen wasn’t sure if he made a sound or if Jared had a sixth sense for intruders, but he stopped punching and whirled around to face Jensen.

 

Jensen held up the bottle and the glasses. “I thought you might want a drink.”

 

“I don’t need a therapy session,” Jared said defensively.

 

“Hey, I’m just offering a drink. But if you want to work out, I’ll leave you to it.”

 

A muscle in Jared’s jaw ticked, then his expression relaxed. “I never say no to a drink.”

 

Jensen walked over to the wall and sat down on one of the sparring mats and poured the drinks. Jared put on his shirt and came over but his feet were still bare. It was a strangely vulnerable sight. People didn’t really take their shoes off, except to sleep. The crew always worked out in boots but it seemed Jared had a different exercise habit. Absently, Jensen wondered if it was a past-thing or a Jared-thing.

 

They clinked their glasses and for a while, they drank in silence. With every breath Jensen took, he could smell Jared’s fresh sweat. It wasn’t unpleasant.

 

When he looked over, Jared caught his eyes. The atmosphere changed, felt charged and tense. Jensen only realized he’d licked his lips when Jared’s eyes drifted down to his mouth. Fuck. This wasn’t what he had come down here for.

 

Then Jared took a drink, and the spell broke.

 

Jensen cleared his throat. “Your first mate looked like a pretty crazy guy. “

 

Jared let out a short laugh. “Yeah, he is. Was. Shit.”

 

Jensen thought of encouraging words to say but as long as the flakes were still out of their reach, they were nothing but empty phrases. So instead he said, “tell me about him?”

 

Jared hesitated. “He’s the worst flirt you’ll ever meet. Seriously, the guy’s got no boundaries and no shame. And even though no one can figure out why, it works for him.” Jared laughed, dimples cutting into his cheeks. “There was this one time we met an ambassador from Iona. I don’t know if that place still exists but they have the longest and most ridiculous courting rituals. So Chad decided to speed-woo her.”

 

For the rest of the night, Jared talked about his crew. He told Jensen about their adventures together, painted their characters so vividly, by the end, Jensen thought he almost knew them. When Jared’s voice got hoarse and trailed off, Jensen picked up with tales of his own people. He told Jared how he’d met Dani, how Chris had practically made Jensen captain and about all the times Chad had accidentally shut off the lights or the gravity control in some part of the ship when he was working on a new invention.

 

They sat in the workout room until the lights turned from night mode to day mode.

 

“Shit,” Jensen rubbed his eyes.

 

Jared yawned. “When’s breakfast?”

 

“Two hours.”

 

“That’s better than nothing.” Jared stood and offered Jensen his hand.

 

Jensen gripped it and let Jared pull himself up. They were standing so close together Jensen had to tilt his head to look up at Jared.

 

Jared looked away, and it felt forced. “I really need to get some shut eye,” he mumbled and turned towards the door.

 

Jensen followed him out, unsure how to handle this. There was attraction here, definitely, and usually he wouldn’t be hesitant to follow wherever it led but with this whole time travel shit, Jared’s situation was complicated enough. And if the itch didn’t go away, Jensen was pretty sure he’d be able to find someone at Camp White to relieve the tension with.

 

 

 

  


The rest of the journey to Camp White was mostly uneventful apart from a near run-in with an Empire cruiser, a giant ship built for war that high ranking officials used to travel.

 

Jared had watched the ship with Jensen; the _Colt_ safely hidden behind the moon of the nearest planet.

 

“That giant ship for one general?” Jared had asked incredulously. “What a waste of fuel.”

 

Jensen had laughed and they had shared a quiet moment of camaraderie. There had been a few of those during their last leg of the trip, and sometimes, their eyes lingered. Jensen thought he could feel a tension building but he wasn't sure if it would be wise to explore it before he knew what would become of their mission. If the situation weren’t so complicated, he knew he would have made a move on Jared already. Tall, strong, and handsome, with sharp wit and an easy going attitude, he was exactly the kind of guy Jensen liked to relax with. As it was, Jensen had decided to take it easy. And Jared hadn’t made a move either, though Jensen had seen him looking. So for now, Jensen wasn’t going to push it.

 

When they came out of hyperspace directly outside of the camp's gun range, Chris called him to the bridge.

 

Jensen authorized their ship and then they flew down through the small, uninhabitable moons towards Rence, the planet that housed the resistance headquarters.

 

Rence was one of five habitable planets in a star system in the Fifth Rim. None of these planets were particularly inviting to humans, marked by extreme weather and temperatures but the resistance had managed to build a base here. Carved deep into the mountains, all life signatures were hidden by the vast jungle covering the planet. Uber-nutritional fruit covering the entire spectrum of human needs grew on Rence in abundance, so they needed few supply transports. Seven small moons surrounded Rence, all of them outfitted with long-range guns. Should the Empire ever figure them out, they'd be able to defend themselves. But in the past five years, the Empire had checked this system at least once a year and every year, the resistance had remained undetected.

 

“How safe is having a permanent base on a planet?” Jared asked, as he followed Jensen to the bridge.

 

“Out here? Very. The jungle vegetation makes it impossible to scan for heat signatures and if they actually land, which they don't do often, then they stumble right past the base. You'll see.”

 

“We're in hangar three,” Chris told Jensen and started their descent.

 

Hangar three was actually closest to the main structure. It seemed like the council was very interested in what he had to discuss with them. Usually, Jensen didn't have enough seniority for a good hangar spot.

 

The endless blue and purple vegetation came into view, round leaves big enough that Jensen could use them as a bed blanketed the forest. When they got lower, they could see colorful blossoms permeating the leaf cover, straining towards the sun.

 

Then the mountains appeared and Chris positioned the _Colt_ over one of the steep sides and hovered until a giant gate, camouflaged as rock, slid open. They landed in the hangar, which was almost completely deserted. Only two officers and a ground crew were waiting for them.

 

The ground crew immediately flocked to Chad and took notes on repairs and refueling. The officers, an older woman Jensen remembered seeing around the base and a young man approached Jensen.

 

“Captain Ackles, the council is waiting for you,” the woman said.

 

“What exactly did you tell them?” Dani whispered to him.

 

“I said I needed a closed-door meeting because we gathered intelligence about a new weapon,” he whispered back. Then he turned to the officers.

 

“This is Lieutenant Harris. She'll coordinate the prisoner transport with you.”

 

“Prisoners?” the young officer asked.

 

“We had a run in with a few hellhounds,” Dani explained. “Nothing we couldn’t handle. C'mon, they're down in the brig.”

 

The officers followed her, the woman already speaking orders into her comm, the young man following Dani with wide, starstruck eyes.

 

Dani turned around and mouthed “later” to Jensen, then she disappeared into the _Colt_.

 

“Chad!” Jensen raised his voice to be heard over the noise of his crew unloading the ship. “I need you with us in the meeting.”

 

Jared and Felicia were already waiting for him. Together, the four of them walked through the many tunnels dug into the mountains. Felicia was looking around curiously. Jared was also scanning their surroundings but Jensen had a feeling it was less with appreciation and more with noting exits and finding possible escape routes. Jared just didn't look comfortable below ground. Jensen recognised  the tense set of his shoulders from back in the old base camp.

 

“It's just a short walk,” he explained to Jared and led them to the elevator that would bring them up to the top level.

 

Jared gave him a look, half-surprised and half-appreciative, but it was gone quickly.

 

The elevator took them up in a few seconds. The council held their meetings in one of the few rooms that was built close to the surface and actually had a few windows.

 

Two men were standing guard but they both recognized him and with a murmured “Captain Ackles” they let him pass.

 

Inside, Jensen was surprised to see that the whole council had gathered. He knew everyone in Camp White would come if they heard “new weapon”, but it was rare all council members were on the planet at the same time. All fifteen councilors had taken their seats behind the high tables arranged into a half circle. The current chair, Amanda Tapping, was presiding in the middle. Jensen didn't like her much, she was the epitome of a politician for politics sake. He looked to the left where Jim was sitting.

 

Jim Beaver had fought alongside Jensen’s parents and aside from his crew, he was the closest person to family Jensen had left. Jim's nod was miniscule but it was still appreciated.

 

Jensen chanced a look to Jared and Felicia. She was looking at the council curiously, with the eyes of a scholar studying a new subject. Jared looked wary and his whole posture was tense.

 

“Just let me handle this,” Jensen said quietly.

 

“Excuse me, if I’m a little on edge about the fate of my future,” Jared said tersely.

 

Jensen rolled his eyes. “I have a plan.”

 

Before Jared could reply, chairwoman Tapping banged her gavel. Everyone quieted down.

 

“Captain Ackles,” Tapping opened the session. “We received your very perfunctory message. We need a full report, obviously.” She looked irritated at Jared and Felicia. “And who are these people?”

 

“Of course, Chairwoman,” Jensen said. He inclined his head towards Chad first. He needed to remind the council of his credentials. “My Tech, Chad Lindberg, regular crew member on the _Colt_. You might remember that we rescued him from the Empire after they pressed him into their service because of his outstanding studies at the Engineering Institute on Beta.” Jensen gave the council a moment to process. Beta had been the galaxy’s center for technological advancements since the founding of the first Confederation. Acceptance to their Engineering Institute was only offered to the greatest minds in the field.

 

Then Jensen motioned towards Jared and Felicia. “And these are Captain Jared Padalecki, of the _Libby_ and Felicia Day, professor of archaeology. They were prisoners on a Knight's ship from where my crew rescued them.”

 

Jensen registered the confusion on a few faces when he said archaeology, but he pressed on. “Captain Padalecki and Professor Day had become prisoners under Alaina Huffman's command after they had time traveled from the year 2,050.”

 

Silence.

 

Slowly, Jim leaned forward. “Jensen, this is not the time for jokes.”

 

Jensen shot him a faint smile. “I'm not joking.”

 

Councilmembers started muttering.

 

Jensen turned around. “Chad?” he prompted.

 

Chad stepped to the screen and drew up a few files. Some of them, Jensen had seen when they'd researched Jared's and Felicia's identity for the first time, others Chad had dug up in the last few days.

 

On the giant screen in front of the council, Jensen saw Jared's mugshot, the news article with Felicia and the archaeological society, the registration of the _Libby_ , the crew log of a ship that cited Jared as a crew member dated years before he took over the _Libby_ , and Felicia’s birth certificate. At the end, there was even a little video, timestamped of course, showing Felicia at some kind of ceremony, where a gray-haired woman in a dark robe with a golden sash put the same robe, minus the fancy sash, around Felicia's shoulders.

 

After the video ended, there was a moment of silence. Then everyone started talking at the same time.

 

It took them over two hours to explain Jared's and Felicia's time travel. First, the council wanted to hear exactly what had happened when they found them and how they had established their identity. Then they demanded an account of the actual time travel event, which led to Felicia giving a twenty minute presentation on the sacred Loriyan artifacts that were commonly referred to as flakes. Most of this, Jensen had already heard when he'd asked her about it, but Chad had dug up some visuals from Loriya pre-destruction and he'd even found the single picture depicting one of the five Loriyan flakes. The council members weren't satisfied, asking question after question even though after an hour, most of the questions were repetitive. The council had a hard time believing what they were hearing.

 

Jensen could relate.

 

Finally, the council settled. A few council members still didn't look convinced, and Jensen saw councilwoman Cohen whisper with councilman Sterling. That couldn't bode well. Sterling was a egomaniacal fanatic and Cohen was an opportunistic piece of shit. Jensen had always thought she'd make a great Empire commander.

 

“This is truly extraordinary,” Tapping said, her voice still slightly incredulous. “Time travel…” She trailed off for a moment before focusing back on Jensen. “We need to confer about what to do with this information.”

 

Jensen could not let them discuss this without pushing them in the right direction.

 

“If I may,” he said.

 

Tapping gestured forward with one hand. “You may.”

 

“Obviously, the search for these flakes might be long, but with Professor Day here we have an expert in the field,” Jensen explained, taking care to look at the council member. “And we cannot let them fall into the wrong hands. We don’t know what message Huffman might have sent back to the Knights camp and if the Empire gets even a whiff of this, they’ll sic the EE trackers on us. And I don't need to tell you what the Empire could do with time travel flakes. In order to avoid having the flakes fall into Empire hands, my crew and I volunteer to support Professor Day and Captain Padalecki in their search for the remaining flakes.”

 

A few council members frowned disapprovingly when Jensen mentioned Jared and Felicia looking for the flakes. They already wanted the artifacts or maybe even thought of them as rightfully theirs. A few people on the council entertained the same absolute claim to the galaxy as the Empire did. It was disgusting and totalitarian but Jensen wasn’t above exploiting that. The more they wanted the flakes, the better it would work out for their search for the flakes.

 

“And if you find them?” Councilman Williams asked Jensen.

 

“We could use them to go back in time and stop the First Tremendous Leader Pellegrino from taking power,” Jensen said.

 

“You want to travel back in time?” Williams asked incredulously. He was a former fighter pilot, a hard man Jensen had a lot of respect for. He didn't fuck around.

 

“Yes, Sir,” Jensen said. “Captain Padalecki and Professor Day actually hail from a time just before the first Tremendous Leader put in place the mechanisms that enabled the rise of the Empire. If we go back to their time, we’d not only have enough time to stop Pellegrino, we’d also profit from their knowledge and expertise of the time and their connections to powerful and influential people.”

 

“He’s a smuggler,” Cohen threw out contemptuously.

 

“I transport goods against the will of the government,” Jared said, his tone challenging. “From what I gather, that’s a huge part of what your fleet does too.”

 

There was muttering in the crowd but Jensen noted that it wasn’t all negative.

 

“Order!” Tapping demanded. “Williams still has the floor.”

 

“Thank you,” Williams said, then leaned forward, his dark eyes fixed on Jensen. “So, if I understand your plan correctly, you want to use a flake to travel back in time, then change the past and what – hope it changes time enough to prevent the war?”

 

Jensen met Williams’s eyes unflinchingly. “If there's only the slightest chance to stop this war from happening, to prevent all the suffering and the destruction, shouldn't we take it?”

 

Williams drew back, his expression thoughtful.

 

It was Cohen who spoke next. “You have no way of knowing how your actions will affect us. You could make things even worse,” she said snidely. “And if you change the past, who knows what kind of present we'll live in.” She paused, looking around at the other council members.

 

Jensen knew where she was going with this and he balled his hands into fists to prevent himself from punching her in the face.

 

“It might be a present,” Cohen said slowly, like she was savoring delivering a winning blow, “where we don't even exist.”

 

The stunned silence was followed by pandemonium.

 

Everyone was talking over each other. Outraged, worried, hostile, Jensen already saw this was not going well. Cohen was talking to a few scared looking people. Sterling had gotten into a shouting match with a woman with long dark braids. Jim was sitting silently in his chair, looking at him with an expression Jensen knew all too well. It was a mixture of you've-got-to-be-kidding-me and I'm-impressed-against-my-better-judgement. Jensen had seen that look a few times when he'd flown with Jim, back when Jim still captained his own ship.

 

“This does not look like it's going well.”

 

Jensen looked over to Jared. He was standing there, arms crossed in front of his chest, watching the council with furrowed brows.

 

“Half of these people have never been in a fight,” Jensen told him quietly. “They only have a very abstract idea of how bad it is out there.”

 

“And a very plush life here.”

 

Jensen nodded. He tried to get Tapping’s attention so she would call the court to order, but she was talking agitatedly to the people to her left. Usually, Jensen didn’t care if the council wanted to discuss things to death but here he could already see things were going the wrong direction. Just when he was about to go up to Tapping and physically get her attention, Jim stood up.

 

“Behave yourself!” he roared into the room. He looked at Tapping. “We should have an orderly discussion.”

 

Tapping took a deep breath. “Of course. Everyone, sit down, now!”

 

Slowly, the council members went back to their places.

 

“Now,” Tapping said, face composed and calm again. “Captain Ackles. As Councilwoman Cohen pointed out, you would have no idea how your actions in the past would affect the future, the present. This is an incredible risk.”

 

“With all due respect,” Jensen said, “the time for risk taking has come. We don’t have enough resources to arm all our ships and supply our bases, let alone allied planets. The recruitment is going slowly, too slowly. Right now, it’s just a matter of time until the Empire crushes us.”

 

“That will never happen!” Sterling jumped up and gestured aggressively at Jensen. “How dare you talk about the resistance like that? We will fight the Empire until the last drop of our blood is spilled.”

 

“And we’re getting there,” Jensen replied angrily. “I don’t even have photon torpedoes on my ship anymore. My crew is—”

 

“Unbelievable!” Cohen cut him off. “Such entitlement. We should have never given you a command at your age, it’s gone to your head.”

 

Fuck. Jensen realized his mistake too late, Cohen was on a roll.

 

“Photon torpedoes are for battleships, not commands flying around the galaxy, doing a little bit of this and that, errand runs, that kind of thing.”

 

Cohen was lucky Dani wasn’t here, she would have already punched her in the face.

 

“Photon torpedoes were never a problem before,” Jensen tried to explain, but Cohen stood, leaned over the raised table and shouted him down.

 

“And now they are. Know your place, _Captain_.”

 

“Lauren, that’s enough,” Tapping said but Cohen didn’t let that stop her from getting one last hit in.

 

“It’s the council who makes the decisions, Captain. The council you swore your loyalty to.”

 

Several other council member nodded along with her. Jensen ground his jaw, tried to stay calm. This was why he fucking hated politics.

 

“I would never presume to make the decisions of this council but I have captained my ship for over ten years. I’ve flown countless missions of all kinds in all corners of the galaxy. I have seen all sides of life under the Empire, and under the resistance. I have seen the suffering, first hand. And I see the state of our fleet. You _know_ how tough things are right now.” Again, Jensen looked at the council members trying to catch their eyes. “Hangar three was empty, except for my ship. Where are all the other ships?”

 

“Out on mission,” Sterling said.

 

“Yeah, those that aren’t in the shipyard,” Jim said dryly. “We decomissioned three ships because they were irreparable and two others are in the hangar because we don’t have enough experienced people to take them out.”

 

“Temporary setbacks,” Sterling said. “We’re working on recruiting the Alasta belt in the Third Rim. When they join us, it will give us a huge boost.”

 

“As I understand it, that’s more an if then a when.” Jim gave Sterling a disapproving look.

 

Sterling bristled. “I’m confident in our negotiators. I selected the crew of the _Fang_ myself.”

 

“Be that as it may,” councilman Lugosi jumped in. He was a pale, older man sitting next to Cohen. “We don’t risk the entire existence of the galaxy just because fighting is getting tough. I lived through years where we ate one ration a day but we would never have contemplated destroying the universe.”

 

“There is no indication that something like that would happen,” Felicia said.

 

She’d been quietly watching but Jared had stepped up to her and murmured something into her ears that had apparently given her comfort.

 

“When Captain Padalecki and I discovered the flake that brought us here, we found the Loriyan delegation had already time traveled away from there — obviously without destroying the universe,” Felicia said with a firm voice.

 

“But they could have gone to the future, not back, right?” Cohen asked.

 

“We really can’t know that,” Felicia said and Jensen fought the urge to bury his face in his hands. “All we know is that our time is the time where Pellegrino sets everything in motion. And we can stop that.”

 

“But you said yourself, you have no idea where the flakes are and which flake does what!” a woman from the left said agitatedly. The rest of the council looked like they agreed except for a few exceptions.

 

Fuck.

 

Well, Jensen hadn’t expected them to be thrilled but he at least needed to get permission to go looking in the first place.

 

“It’s all hypothetical at this point anyway,” Jensen said smoothly, smiling reassuringly at the worried looking council members. “What important is that we find the flakes.”

 

“You just pointed out we don’t have enough resources,” a young councilman Jensen didn't know said.

 

“This is essential,” Jensen said.

 

“Hypothetical flakes?”

 

“Don’t be daft, Brock,” Jim said in his no nonsense voice. “If the Empire gets these flakes and uses them, who knows how much worse it could get. And we don’t want them in the hands of the Knights either. Jensen is right, we need to find these flakes before they do. It’s essential.”

 

“And of course you volunteer,” Cohen said.

 

Jensen was pretty sure she had figured him out, but he wasn’t going to give up. “You just said that my crew mostly does errand runs anyway. We don’t even warrant photon torpedoes, so we’re not essential to the fighting.”

 

Cohen glared at him with a pinched expression. Jensen just gave her a pleasant smile. “If we are as insignificant as you just pointed out, why not let us go looking for those flakes?”

 

“Who’s going to stop you from using the flake if you find it?” she asked.

 

“I swore an oath,” Jensen said. It was true. He’d sworn to fight the Empire and protect the galaxy. And he’d sworn to be loyal to the resistance. There had been nothing in there about blind loyalty to the council. “Besides, Councilman Quall’s son is part of my crew.”

 

Everyone looked at the gaunt, aging councilman. He’d been a great captain and was an even better ambassador now. He had convinced more planets than any other person to join the resistance and he was one of the councilors who’d opposed Jensen’s command. Jensen had always thought that taking on DJ was as much a punishment for Jensen as it was training for DJ. Everyone knew councilman Quall did not like Jensen.

 

“What are you saying?” Councilman Quall asked gravely.

 

“If there are doubts about my loyalty — which frankly are ridiculous because I have risked my life countless time for the resistance and I’ve never turned down a mission for the council, no matter how dangerous, how dreary or how far out of my area of responsibility.” He shot a meaningful look at councilwoman Sampson for whom he was currently evaluating the evacuation of Camp Blue. “So even if doubts about my loyalty remain, Councilman Quall’s sons’ loyalty to his father and this council are undoubtedly above question. He can report to you the entire time.” Jensen looked at Councilman Quall, not flinching away from eye contact. “Unless you and your son don’t have that kind of relationship.”

 

Next to Jensen, Chad badly suppressed a laugh. A few people on the council smirked. Councilman Quall was not amused.

 

“My son will report to this council,” he said, “if there are any irregularities with your command.”

 

Jensen nodded deferentially. It almost made him nauseous. “Of course. But as I said, I am loyal. We need to save the flakes from the Empire, that is the most important thing. And without figuring out which flake does what, we can’t use them anyway. Besides, the whole idea of going back in time is purely hypothetical at this point.”

 

Next to Jensen, Jared stiffened. Jensen suppressed an eyeroll. Jared couldn’t think that Jensen would fold that easily.

 

Tapping hammered her gavel again and shot Cohen an angry look. “I don’t think there will be any need for reporting on your command. You have been a great asset to the resistance,” Tapping said. “and I know you will follow your orders. So you will take your crew and find those flakes. Then you will bring them back here, without using them.”

 

“Of course,” Jensen nodded. “This is an issue that needs to be handled with utmost care.”

 

He looked around the council and he could see that most members seemed to believe him. Sterling was still watching him with narrowed eyes and Cohen was eying him with her usual expression of contempt.

 

“Professor Day will need access to our archives,” Jensen addressed Tapping again. “To begin her research.”

 

Tapping nodded. “I’ll send word to Mister McKinney, he will show her everything.”

 

Jensen forced his face into a pleasant expression and bowed towards the council. “Thank you for this command.”

 

Tapping nodded graciously and with that, they were dismissed.

 

Jensen turned and ushered Jared and Felicia out. Chad followed behind them. Jensen hadn’t looked at Jared, but now that he was, he could see that Jared’s expression was one of barely contained fury.

 

“What the fuck—” he started, but was disrupted by councilwoman Cohen who had followed them out.

 

“I thought the council was still in session,” Jensen said.

 

She gave him an innocent smile. “Bathroom break. Now, I don’t know what you were thinking but you’re never going back to the past, _Captain_. We will not risk the entire universe for your insane idea.”

 

“You mean, risk your life.”

 

“Semantics,” she said dismissively. “Now, if you even think about using one of these flakes—”

 

“I already told you, I won’t,” Jensen hissed. “There needs to be more research done on them before we could ever wish to harness their powers anyway. I’m not stupid, despite what you may think. I’m not just going to touch it and see what happens.”

 

Next to him, Jared actually growled. Cohen scrutinized Jensen.

 

“It would be a daring thing to do,” Jensen said because he needed to give her something. “But I won’t do it recklessly and not without the council’s support.” Usually, Jensen hated to lie, but with Cohen, he had no such reservations.

 

She pursed her lips. “Very well then. Just know that I’m keeping my eyes on you.”

 

Jensen suppressed a shudder and inclined his head. “Councilwoman.”

 

“Captain.” And with that she went back into the council room.

 

Jensen turned back to Jared. “Stars, I hate that woman. I swear, ever since—”

 

He didn’t get further because Jared’s big hands gripped him by the collar. “What the fuck was that?” Jared’s voice was barely more than a whisper but dripping with so much venom Jensen felt like he’d been slapped in the face.

 

“Let’s go,” Jensen ordered calmy.

 

Jared’s nostrils flared angrily, but he let go of Jensen. “You fucking promised to get me home, Ackles, and now you fold for a bunch of politicians?”

 

“Keep your voice down!” Jensen ground out and looked up and down the corridor. Chad and Felicia had disappeared to stars knew where but there were still the two guards and from the end of the corridor a group of people was approaching.

 

So Jensen started towards the elevator.

 

“Don’t you walk away from me!” Jared shouted after him. “You promised, you fucking gave me hope!”

 

The cluster of people was coming closer, so Jensen grabbed Jared’s jacket by the shoulder and dragged him past the people and pushed against the first door he found. It opened into a tiny storage space, just big enough for the two of them to stand within an arm’s length of each other. But the door seemed thick enough, no noises from outside came into the room.

 

Jared immediately pushed into Jensen’s space. “I need to get home, don’t you get that? Chad died, my entire crew was thrown in jail or killed because of that fucking flake!”

 

“I told you,” Jensen bit out, “we’re going back and we’re gonna kill Pellegrino and—”

 

“I don’t give a flying fuck about Pellegrino!” Jared roared, his voice impossibly loud in the small space. “I want to fucking save my people.”

 

“What?” Jensen stared at Jared’s enraged face, his hair a tousled mess and his eyes shining with anger. “We had a deal. We go back together and you will help us take out Pellegrino.”

 

Jared shook his head angrily, long strands of his hair falling into his face. “We never made a deal which is a moot point anyway if you don’t want to use the fucking flake!”

 

Jensen couldn’t believe this. “You fucking liar.” He pushed Jared back. “You know, when Dani said we couldn’t trust you because you’re a smuggler, I defended you, gave you the benefit of the doubt. And don’t give me fucking semantics because we _have_ a deal!” Jensen said furiously. “I help you get back, you help me with Pellegrino.”

 

Jared snorted. “I never said that. This is your fight, not mine. If we ever manage to get back, I’ll happily give you all the pointers you need, even drop you off at a point of your choosing but I never agreed to fight with you. I have my own people to think about and I won’t risk their lives for your rebellion.”

 

Jensen pulled back, feeling like he’d been doused with cold water. Jared was right, he’d never promised he’d help, Jensen had just assumed… With everything he’d seen from Jared, he had truly thought Jared would help them.

 

“I will go back, no matter what the fucking council says,” Jensen hissed and Jared’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

“What, you thought I’d bow to their decision? I told you, they refuse to see what’s going on out there. Going back is the only way to stop the war, and I can’t stand by while the people out there suffer. How can you not care about the fate of the galaxy?”

 

Angrily, Jared stepped into his space. “There’s no rule about the number of people you have to care about. And it doesn’t matter what you do for all those other people out there because you get nothing but a kick in the ass for it. Governments come and go and people are always assholes. So excuse me if the family I found are the people worth saving.”

 

“ _Life_ is worth saving,” Jensen said and he didn’t know what had happened to Jared to make him so callous. He cared so much about his own people — Jensen had seen the pain about losing his crew rip him apart — it was incomprehensible how he cared so little about the galaxy. But Jensen needed him to understand. “I will do anything, anything, you get that, to save the galaxy. I don’t give a shit about the council, and I don’t know what you think I could have said in there to change their minds. I had to do damage control, okay?”

 

Jared was staring at him with flushed cheeks and a heaving chest, expression torn between angry defensiveness and a desire to believe. Jensen wanted — needed — him to believe. And he needed to know that Jared could care. “I will find those fucking flakes and we will go back. And I’ll even help you save your people, because it’s the fucking right thing to do. But if your people are all you care about…”

 

They were glaring at each other, almost nose to nose, and Jensen was still — or again — gripping Jared’s jacket. Jared’s eyes were fixed on Jensen, intense and compelling.

 

“You have no fucking idea what I care about or why, Jensen,” he said quietly, carefully enunciating every word. “You don’t know me at all.” And then he surged down and kissed Jensen.

 

It was hard and rough, biting pressure and Jensen was reacting, kissing back before he could process what was going on. He had no idea what the fuck they were doing but he couldn’t be bothered to care. Jared’s entire body was pressed against him, a hot wall of muscle that pushed Jensen back against the wall.

 

He raised his hands, got them into Jared’s impossibly soft hair and pulled.

 

Jared made a satisfying growl deep in his chest and his hands started scrabbling at Jensen’s belt. Their mouths never parted, they kept kissing and biting at each other while they ripped their pants open. The tension that had been building the past few days and the stress of this whole time travel mess, it just burst out of them. Jensen was so consumed by Jared, so caught up in the moment, that he couldn’t even think about whether this was a good idea or not.

 

When they touched each other, it was just like their kisses, rough and quick, but Jensen didn’t care, the pressure was already building deep inside him and he just needed to get off. Jared was panting into his mouth, letting out a litany of fucks while he jerked Jensen’s dick.

 

Jensen tried to return the favor but it was hard to concentrate. It didn’t matter.

 

The were both so highly strung, it seemed to take no time at all until Jensen could feel himself getting close and Jared's rhythm was getting choppy and he was insistently pushing his hips forward.

 

Jared let his head fall forward to look down at their hands getting each other off.

 

“Shit.” He was voice was rough and Jensen pushed his face into Jared’s neck, mouthing at the line of sweat trailing down Jared’s skin.

 

Jared threw his head back. “Oh fuck.”

 

He came all over them and the sight of the long tendons in his neck standing out, his mouth half open in pleasure was enough to push Jensen over the edge he’d been teetering on.

 

He came, and only barely managed to stay upright. Panting, he let himself fall back against the wall. Jared followed him, propping himself up with his hands against the wall next to Jensen’s head.

 

They looked at each other, both still trying to catch their breath, and Jensen tried to figure out what this meant. It came back to him, Jared not wanting to help. Jared not trusting Jensen to keep up his end of the bargain, Jared not believing that Jensen would do the right thing here. Except, Jared didn’t think it was the right thing.

 

Fuck. Jensen rubbed his face with the hand that wasn’t sticky. Shit. They needed to clean up.

 

Wordlessly, Jared stepped back and looked around. He found a couple of rags that seemed mostly clean. He held one out to Jensen and they cleaned each other perfunctorily and straightened out their clothes.

 

Jensen wasn’t done zipping up his jacket when the door was ripped open and Chad was peering into the storage room. “There you are. We were wondering where you’d gone.”

 

Jared and Jensen awkwardly stood frozen in the tiny space. Chad looked back and forth between them as if it only now dawned on him why they were in here.

 

His eyes went wide and then he grinned at Jensen. “Nice one, Captain,” he said and stepped back.

 

Quickly, Jensen tried to follow him out but Jared grabbed his arm.

 

“Hey.” He stopped, looked at Jensen uncertainly. Then he squared his shoulders. “What are you gonna do?”

 

“What do you think?” Jensen asked tightly. “I’m going to help you find the fucking flake and then I’m going to save this fucking resistance.”

 

Jerkily, Jared nodded his head. “Look—”

  
Jensen pulled his arm out of Jared’s grip. “We don’t have time for this. We have work to do.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the original reversebang submission ended. I am already working on more and plan to update regularly. I haven't done a WIP in a while, let's hope I still know how.


	8. Chapter 7

 

A staffer from Camp White, a dark-haired snarky woman, who introduced herself as Rachel, showed Jared and Felicia to the rooms they’d be staying in. Chad had told her about the _Colt_ ’s two extra passengers and she found them rooms in the same corridor where the rest of the crew were staying.

 

Jared and Felicia were following Rachel, who was explaining the layout of Camp White. Jared wasn’t listening.

 

Felicia kept shooting him worried looks, opened her mouth to say something once or twice but then seemed to think better of it.

 

Rachel stopped in a corridor of brightly painted doors, the one she was standing in front of was red.

 

“We have a small single room, that’s for you,” Rachel said to Felicia. “Chad said you need space and quiet to research.”

 

Felicia nodded gratefully but then she worriedly looked at Jared.

 

“You’re at the end of the hall, green door,” Rachel explained. “Your fingerprints should already be added to the door codes.”

 

“Thanks.” Jared turned to continue on towards his door.

 

“Jared, wait,” Felicia called after him. “What just happened?”

 

“Nothing,” Jared said woodenly. “Look, they’re gonna come get us later to show us the archives. Let’s focus on that, okay?”

 

She didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded.

 

Jared made his way to the green door. He needed a fucking shower.

 

His room was large with a broad bed. Stuff was lying around, Jared assumed someone else usually lived here. There were clothes in the closet, fairly large though probably a little small for him, and a reading tab on the nightstand. The table in the corner was littered with papers — maps, supply lists, ship design schematics. It reminded Jared of Jensen’s mess on the _Colt_.

 

Fuck. Jared took a deep breath. He needed a shower.

 

In the shower, he turned the temperature as high as he could bear and washed all traces of Jensen off his skin. There was a reason he hadn’t wanted to get involved, to get distracted. He’d let his guard down and Jensen’s face when he realized Jared had no intention of joining the fight — he’d been so disappointed, as if he had expected better of him.

 

Jared hated it. He didn’t know why it was hitting him so hard because he knew it was the right thing to do. There was no sense in sacrificing himself in a fight for the greater good when it would get him nowhere and only endanger his crew. People, as a rule, were stupid, ungrateful assholes. And even if they killed Pellegrino, who said someone worse wouldn’t take his place? People had a habit of choosing their oppressors. If Jensen wanted to die for his cause, that was his deal. To expect Jared to help him… Jared angrily scrubbed himself until his skin was red. He’d seen what this kind of selfless fight did to people, risking your life for others, and getting nothing but grief and ungratefulness in return. He had no interest in that.

 

When he felt like a lobster, boiled Shooka style, he left the shower. He toweled off perfunctorily, wrapped the towel around his hips and went back into the room to see if any of the clothes would fit. He was rummaging through the closet when the room’s door opened and Jensen came in.

 

They both froze, staring at each other. Jensen’s eyes flitted down to Jared’s naked chest, then back to his face, where they remained.

 

“What are you doing here?” Jensen asked tightly.

 

“Rachel told me this was my room.”

 

Jensen opened his mouth angrily, then snapped it closed and went to the room’s control panel next to the door. He pressed a blue button that apparently opened a comm line.

 

“Coordination, this is Rachel.”

 

“Hey, it’s Jensen. There seems to be a mix up with the rooms.”

 

“What?” Rachel’s voice was confused. “I gave Felicia a small single for research purposes and I showed Jared to your room. Did he go to the wrong one? I said green door and he should only have access to your room.”

 

What the fuck? Why was Jared in Jensen’s room? Jensen was obviously thinking the same because he stared at the control panel with wide eyes. “You showed Jared to my room?” he repeated.

 

Rachel laughed. “Of course. Chad told me he’d spend his nights with you anyways so might as well. Which is a good thing, because with the _Stanford_ coming in later, all other beds in your corridor are full. We would’ve needed to put one of them somewhere else.”

 

“I’m gonna kill him,” Jensen muttered quietly.

 

“What?” Rachel asked. “What’s the problem?”

 

Jensen clenched his jaw, obviously debating what to say. Jared was waiting for him to explain the mix-up to Rachel, when Jensen said, “No problem. Sorry. I didn’t see Felicia but if you gave her a single here, it’s all good.”

 

“Great,” Rachel said and then her voice changed to a teasing tone. “Congrats, by the way. He’s hot.”

 

The connection broke off. Jensen closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he turned to Jared.

 

“What the fuck,” Jared asked slowly, “was that?”

 

“The next crew accommodations are a few corridors over. I’m not gonna split you and Felicia up. There’s a cot in one of the other rooms, we can put that in with Felicia.”

 

Jared was surprised. After their fight, he didn’t think Jensen would go out of his way for him.

 

Jensen obviously caught on, because he rolled his eyes. “This is for Felicia’s benefit.”

 

“Right.”

 

Jensen looked away. “You should get dressed.”

 

Jared snorted.

 

Jensen shot him an angry look. “You done in the bathroom?”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

Jensen disappeared into the bathroom and Jared wanted to bang his head against something. Great. If he had just managed to keep his mouth shut…. But he’d been too riled up, too scared, if he was honest, that he wouldn't get to go back. Chad was dead. They were all dead, or locked up, because of him.

 

Rationally, he knew that now, after a hundred and forty years, of course they were all dead. But to him, it felt like their time was moving along with his, they were living their lives back in the past while he was living his in the future, so right now, they’d be locked up in some Confederation jail, separated, hungry and probably beaten worse than a groom at a Shooka engagement party.

 

Fuck. Jared needed to focus. Jensen had already said he wanted to go back. But what if there was a better point in time to go back to? What if he decided that would be more important than Jared’s crew?

 

Quickly, Jared pulled out a few clothes and tried them on until he found a pair of pants that were only a little too short and a longsleeved shirt that was only a little too tight at the shoulders.

 

He needed to find a way to smooth things over with Jensen, make him understand. Jared let himself fall down in a chair. He fucking hated talking about shit like this.

 

Jensen had apparently taken clothes into the bathroom, because he came out dressed in light gray pants and a dark green henley. The clothes didn’t look like the usual practical fight gear in black and dark gray Jared had seen the crew and the working people in Camp White wear.

 

Jensen caught him looking. “I’m officially on down time,” he said. “This way, no one gets any ideas about roping me into any work.”

 

Jared nodded. “Can we talk?” he asked.

 

Jensen rubbed his still damp hair in annoyance but came over to the table and took the empty chair. His hair was standing up on top of his head in soft-looking tufts. It made Jared’s fingers itch. He balled his hands into fists.

 

“Talk,” Jensen said.

 

“I’m sorry if you got the wrong idea,” Jared started.

 

Jensen leaned forward, eyes glinting angrily. “Let’s cut the crap, okay? You never had any intention of helping me out but you let me think otherwise so I’d help you. Now if you would get out of your own selfish head occasionally, you would have realized that I would have helped you without expecting anything in return.”

 

“So you still want to go back to my time, no matter what the council says, or if another point in time would be better?” Jared finally asked and his voice was rough.

 

“Yes. And if you don’t want to help us when we get there, that’s your decision.” Jensen leaned back and sighed. “I’ve always said that not everyone is a fighter. There are still civilians, people who don’t get involved.” He looked at Jared with quirked eyebrows. “It’s a shame that you don’t want to fight because from what I can see, you’re a born rebel fighter, but that’s your choice.”

 

“Then why are you so angry?”

 

“Because you fucking led me on,” Jensen said. “I told you, you’re part of my crew now and you lied. That’s not how it works on my ship.”

 

“Well, I am sorry about that,” Jared conceded. “And before you’re angry at Felicia, she has nothing to do with this. As a matter of fact, she’s hell bent on helping you guys anyway.”

 

Jensen raised one eyebrow. “What does she say about your plans?”

 

Jared grinned self-deprecatingly. “She thinks I’ll do the right thing in the end.”

 

That made Jensen’s brows shoot up.

 

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Jared said. “I think you’re all a bunch of sentimental idiots, in love with an idea of morality and bravery that gets you nowhere but into an early grave. Those people you fight for don’t care about any of that.”

 

“Wow,” Jensen said, comically exaggerating the word. “You have a really high opinion of humanity.”

 

Jared shrugged casually. “It’s the way the world works.”

 

Jensen tilted his head, eyes boring into Jared. “No. You pretend not to give a shit but something happened to you that made you so bitter. Because I’ve seen you care about your people, about Felicia. So you know there are people worth saving out there.”

 

Jared stood. He didn’t want to talk about this. “And I had to fly across the entire galaxy to find a handful of them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Felicia and I have a date with your records keeper.”

 

Jensen gesture towards the door. “Don’t let me stop you. Let me know if you need help.”

 

Jared walked to the door, opened it. Then he turned back. “You really mean it?” he asked. “You’re gonna help me and not gonna give me shit for it?”

 

“I’m not going to give you anything for it,” Jensen said tersely.

 

That stung more than it had any right to. Irritated, Jared left for Felicia’s room.

  
  


 

 

Jared reached Felicia’s door at the same time as a brunette woman dressed in a light blue robe.

 

“I’m Tiio Horn,” she introduced herself. “I work with Gil in the records hall. You must be Jared.”

 

Jared nodded. He wasn't sure whether anyone else outside of the council knew about the time travel but Tiio answered the question for him when she looked at him curiously.

 

“So, what makes you so special that you get an all-access pass to our records?”

 

Jared grinned. “Oh, I’m not special at all. I’m only here to accompany special,” he said and pointed his thumb at Felicia’s door.

 

With impeccable timing, Felicia came out of her room. She was wearing clothes she’d borrowed from Dani, dark pants and a very fitted black tank top. She was just putting on a jacket and Tiio’s eyes followed her every move.

 

Well. Jared was so used to Felicia, the slightly bookish professor who usually wore comfortable clothes half a size too big that he’d never thought about her that way. But seeing her now in fitting battle clothes, her red hair curled, the damp tips pointing roguishly in all directions, he understood why Tiio was staring at her.

 

Felicia was oblivious. “Hi,” she said brightly. “You must be our guide.”

 

“Call me Tiio,” Tiio said with a much brighter smile than the one she’d given Jared.

 

While Tiio led them to the records hall, she hit on Felicia shamelessly. Felicia eventually caught on, blushed, and then hesitantly flirted back. Jared hadn’t asked her recently how things with Dani were going but he hadn’t seen anything that indicated Dani would make a move and Felicia was usually to shy to make a move on her own.

 

So Jared listened to their slightly awkward conversation, glad that it provided a distraction from what had happened with Jensen.

 

They took three different elevators, one shuttle and rail-based wagon to get through the mountain. Camp White stretched through the entire mountain range and the records hall was far away from the hangars and crew accommodation.

 

“We mostly use natural caves and tunnels,” Tiio explained, “because the stone is so hard here. Digging and blasting new rooms takes a lot of work.”

 

The finally reached the records hall and Jared really hoped there would be windows in there. All this rock was making him feel trapped.

 

Large metal doors opened into a dimly lit cavernous room. It reached far back into the darkness, so Jared couldn’t be sure about the size, but the room had a feeling of vastness. A neat looking dark haired man in his thirties greeted them with a sincere expression.

 

“I’m Gil, I oversee the archives. Tiio here maintains the database. Council chair Tapping informed me that you are looking for something in the archives and that we are to assist you, the best way we can.” Gil managed to suppress his curiosity much better than Tiio, but Jared could still see he was dying to know what was going on.

 

Felicia was already looking around the entrance of the room that was visible by the lamp light. Giant metal shelves were closely stacked together and housed white boxes of all sizes, neatly labeled.

 

“What exactly do you have in here?” Felicia asked.

 

“We collect artifacts from all over the galaxy,” Gil explained. “We have private collections, museum exhibits, things our fighters find or refugees bring with them. Some things are brought to us for safekeeping by people whose homes are endangered. And of course, every piece of history we can steal from the Empire.” His face darkened. “They’re rewriting history, so we’re saving every piece of evidence we can. Most digital data is of course lost, but all important government records were saved on data plates, and some even on paper. We collect all we can. Now, what is it you’re looking for?”

 

“We need everything you have on Loriyan history and culture,” Felicia said.

 

“Loriya?” Tiio asked. “That’s one of the abandoned planets, isn't it?”

 

Felicia nodded.

 

“Why?” Tiio asked.

 

“To save the galaxy,” Jared cut in. “Now can we get going?”

 

Confused, Tiio looked at Felicia who just pulled a regretful grimace. “Sorry, we can’t say. Council's orders.”

 

Tiio harrumphed, but walked over to the side, where several screens and a large computer panel were built into the wall. “Alright. I’m going to pull up everything in our database. Gil’s going to get you anything we have in hardware.”

 

“Jared, you can help Tiio sift through the material, you know what we need,” Felicia said, her eyes already fixed on the shelves. “I’m going to go with Gil.”

 

Tiio looked disappointed but Felicia’s eyes were already getting what Kim had called her excavation-glint. Remembering Kim’s fond expression whenever she’d said it was a painful stab.

 

Jared walked over to the screens. “Don’t worry,” he told Tiio. “No one can compete with some dusty old artifacts. You have better chances of getting her attention by finding something really good in here.”

 

Tiio gave him a wry grin. “Alright then. Let’s dig up some info about Loriya.”

 

 

  


Three hours later, Jared’s stomach was rumbling and he was getting frustrated. Tiio and he had scanned all kinds of documents from the founding time of Loriya, about trade agreements with other planets, and their role starting the First and their involvement in the Second Intergalactic War.

 

“Why is there no stuff about the Third Galactic War?” Jared asked. He remembered from Felicia’s lectures, that just like in the First IGW, Loriya’s dispute with the intergalactic government of the time had lead to the break out of the Third IGW.

 

Tiio entered different terms into her search matrix. “Because that’s when the Confederation was founded. The Empire is trying to rebrand that entire time as a failure to establish a working government. Wait, this looks good.”

 

“Only if it comes with food,” Jared said darkly.

 

Tiio laughed and got a bowl of dried fruit out of a small compartment. “There are only two meals here, for ‘logistic reasons’ which I call bullshit but you can always get dried fruit,” she said. “You’ll have to wait another four hours for dinner.”

 

Determined, Jared bit into a blue piece of dried fruit. He could manage another four hours.

 

 

 

 

Three hours and thirty minutes later, Jared was ready to smash his face into the keyboard. They had read countless reports on the last battle for Loriya, military reports, refugee reports, space traffic reports — but nothing on the Princess, or any other high-ranking member that could have transported flakes off planet. If Jared hadn't known that at least two flakes had made it off-planet — the one Felicia and he had found and the one the Loriyan princess must have used to get her and the crew off that old dragonfly — he would have thought all flakes had remained on Loriya. And Felicia had already been sure that the other three flakes had been brought to safety before.

 

“If I knew what we were looking for,” Tiio started.

 

“I told you, information about high-ranking Loriyans getting themselves and Loriyan art off-planet during the Third Galactic War.”

 

“There’s nothing here, it seems,” Tiio said. “Maybe whatever you’re looking for wasn’t transported by someone of importance?”

 

“Maybe,” Jared said. “Let’s go back to the refugee reports. But after dinner!”

 

Tiio laughed but agreed. “Now we just have to drag Gil and Felicia away from the artifacts.”

 

Jared stood and stretched. He felt like he’d shrunk five inches, sitting in that chair for the better part of the day.

 

He walked over to the rows of shelves. “Felicia?”

 

There was rummaging to his left and he followed the shelves until he found Felicia and Gil about seven aisles down. Looking into the room, Jared didn’t see an end.

 

“How’s it going?” he asked.

 

“Not good,” Felicia said. “We already checked all the boxes that could contain anything from Loriya. Right now, I’m sifting through stuff from planets who had  good relations with Loriya before the war but I’m not hopeful. How are you doing?”

 

Jared gave her the cliff notes of his search, watching Felicia's expression get more and more dejected. He felt the same.

 

“So much has been lost or destroyed by the Empire,” she said. “All the ancient scrolls. There was a whole archive of Loriyan history, all written down on their planet-made parchment. Jared…” She looked at him imploringly. “We have to find something, anything, in these documents.”

 

Jared nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I’m not an archaeologist, I probably missed a ton of important stuff.”

 

Felicia nodded vigorously. “Yeah, we’ll just have to do good old bibliographical research.”

 

Jared wasn’t sure what that meant but as long as Felicia had a plan, he was hopeful.

 

Gil and Tiio accompanied them to dinner. To the dining hall, it was only one wagon ride and two elevators but a long stretch through a pretty narrow tunnel. Jared was really starting to hate Camp White.

 

When they finally reached the huge dining hall, the _Colt_ ’s crew was already sitting at a long table in the back. Jared thought there were at least five hundred people in here. Tiio and Gil directed them to one of the serving counters where everybody could get a plate and load it up with fruits in all kinds of states. There was cold puree, green and yellow fruit pieces grilled on long sticks and cooked fruit stew. Jared took a little bit from everything, even the disgusting looking dark green slimey-looking soup, and hoped for the best. It did smell good.

 

Felicia's plate was less full, but she’d also taken the full variety, except for the green slime.

 

At the table, the crew members scooted up and down the benches to make space for them. There was some shuffling but in the end, Jared ended up between Rich and Jensen. Rich smirked openly at Jared, Alona winked, Chris rolled his eyes, and the rest of the crew was shooting them furtive glances. Apparently Chad had already told them what he’d seen in the supply closet and considering Jensen’s sour expression, the crew enjoyed ribbing their captain. Great. Jared’s own crew had teased and played the occasional prank on him, it was always a sign of a good climate on a ship, but he had no desire for this thing between Jensen and him to become some kind of running joke.

 

Felicia got her usual spot next to Dani who absently clapped Jensen on the shoulder while she was already talking to Felicia. Tiio had squeezed in next to her and Gil joined Alona and Chad at the end.

 

Jared and Jensen ate in silence while around them, the crew talked and laughed, pointedly ignoring their bad mood.

 

“How is it going?” Jensen asked quietly while Jared was chewing on a fibrous piece of a sweet-tasting blue fruit.

 

“Nothing so far,” Jared said between bites. “But we just started.”

 

When Jensen didn’t reply, Jared looked over to him. The captain seemed reluctantly amused, his mouth twitching in a barely suppressed smile.

 

“Brave,” he finally said and pointed his spork at Jared’s plate, specifically the little bowl with the green slime. “Not many people try that when they come here for the first time.”

 

“It does look pretty bad,” Jared admitted. “But people here apparently eat it, so why not try.”

 

“You’re a braver man than I,” Rich threw in from his other side. “I’ve been coming here for ten years and I’ve yet to try it.”

 

“Yes, but you my friend are a coward,” Seb said pointedly.

 

“I know the value of a good disguise,” Rich protested, “that’s different.”

 

Under the rambunctious commentary of the rest of the crew, Seb and Rich launched into a debate about a mission where Rich had dressed up as a Shooka prostitute to escape the Empire’s trackers. Opinions were split whether Rich was a coward or actually incredibly brave.

 

“If Shooka prostitutes still dress like they did in my time,” Jared said, “I salute you.”

 

“They wear a golden feather mask, a striped cat tail, and nothing else,” Rich said.

 

Jared grinned. “Like I said, I salute you.”

 

“You should salute everyone who saw it and survived,” Jensen threw in and the whole table dissolved in laughter.

 

Rich threw a piece of green fruit at his captain but Jensen just ducked, a bright grin on his face. It made him look years younger, almost gave him a boyish charm.

 

When he looked at Jared, the force of his smile dimmed but there was still an impish glint in his eyes. “So.” He pointed at the green slime. “You’re gonna eat that?”

 

The table fell silent and everyone looked at them in anticipation. Jared wasn’t sure what would happen when he ate it but he wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. Ostentatiously, he plunged his spork into the slime that stuck surprisingly well to the plastic surface. He tried to sniff it surreptitiously, but it didn’t smell like much. Aware of all eyes on him, Jared put the spork into his mouth.

 

Nothing happened. It didn’t taste of anything really. Jared turned to Jensen, who was just holding out a piece of teal-red mottled fruit.

 

“Trust me,” Jensen said dryly, “you want to eat that.”

 

Jared was just about to ask why when the most foul taste he’d ever experienced spread through his mouth. It was a pungent combination of sewer, decomposition and stale farts. It was revolting. Jared gagged, trying to breathe in through his mouth but the taste just clung to his tongue.

 

“Fuck, why would anybody eat that?” he coughed out.

 

Jensen just held out the fruit to him with a grin. Jared was distantly aware that the rest of the table was laughing but he was concentrating so hard on not puking all over the table. Blindly, he grabbed for the piece of fruit Jensen was offering, anything to get that disgusting taste out of his mouth.

 

The moment he bit into the fruit, a salty taste flooded his mouth and then, all of a sudden, there was nothing but ambrosia. Wondrously, Jared chewed while a completely new and foreign flavor filled his mouth. It was a little sweet, a little tangy and just incredibly delicious.

 

While he was chewing he watched Jensen dip a little piece of the fruit into the green slime carefully.

 

“It’s not easy to get the ratio right,” he said, eying his piece critically. “But the payoff is amazing.” He put the fruit in his mouth, then closed his eyes and made a pleased little sound that went straight to Jared’s dick.

 

“I’d love to try,” Felicia said to Jensen, “can you make me a sample?”

 

“I can try,” Jensen said but Tiio had already stood up.

 

“Don’t worry, I can do it.”

 

The rest of the meal, the crew tried getting the combination right and not everybody was successful. Jared couldn’t stop laughing, not when Rich spit his portion all over the table, and not when Alona had to get up and run to the water fountain and rinsed her mouth for several minutes.

 

After the meal, Chris invited Jared down to the bar. Everyone was going to go, Jared and Felicia just had to come along. Jared wasn’t opposed. After the day he had, he needed to blow off steam. So it was either working out or getting drunk. And right now, alcohol was looking pretty good.

 

The bar, as it turned out, was one of the more convoluted caves that the resistance never bothered to find a purpose for. So a few decades ago, carpenters from Keshalla, a planet famous for its many forest moons, had built a bar, tables, benches, chairs and game tables into every nook and cranny of the cave, along the rocky walls, around thick stone pillars and thin stalagmites. Lamps were fastened to the stalactites hanging from the ceiling and several tiny bridges crossed the stream of water dividing the cave in one larger and one smaller area.

 

“It’s a rite of passage to fall in the river,” Chris explained.

 

Felicia took in everything with wide eyes. Tiio had come with them and Felicia turned to her, probably bugging her about the building history of the place.

 

In the bar, the crew spread out. Rich met up with a beautiful, regal looking woman with darker skin and long, black hair.  Traci met up with a guy who looked like a younger version of her and Seb was moving towards a table where a group of people were already drinking heavily.

 

Chris got them a table, but he was distracted for a moment, watching as Alona moved to sit with two guys wearing ground crew uniforms. Jensen and Dani sat down at the other end of the table and Jared decided to stick with Chris. Tiio had dragged Felicia off to one of the game tables and Dani watched them with narrowed eyes.

 

Jensen cleared his throat loudly and Dani glared at him.

 

“I’m just saying,” Jensen said.

 

“Mimimi,” Dani mimicked him and he grinned. “Considering I’m not bringing up your supply closet adventure every time I damn well please, you should consider shutting your cake hole and awarding me the same courtesy.”

 

Jensen’s grin immediately turned into a scowl and Chris laughed heartlessly. “Oh, this is gonna be good.”

 

Oh great. The crew were not going to let this go. Jared would have to have words with Chad for not keeping his mouth shut. Just then Chad plopped down at their table with several glass bottles filled with liquid in different colors and a tower of stacked glasses.

 

“Excellent.” Chris leaned forward and started dispensing glasses. “Who’s getting drunk with me?”

 

Everyone reached for their glasses.

 

Jared turned to Chad. “About the sleeping arrangements.”

 

Chad grinned unrepentantly. “You can thank me later,” he said and started to pour. Jared could already smell the sharp scent of high proof alcohol.

 

“More Sheerha shine?” he asked hopefully, deciding to ignore the room situation for now.

 

“Nah,” Chad explained. “We make our own stuff here out of the fruits. They’re all the same proof, except for the blue one, you wanna be careful with that one.”

 

Chris reached for the bottle with the blue liquid and Dani held out her glass to him.

 

“Pathetic,” Chad commented.

 

If looks could kill, Chad would evaporate under Dani’s stare.

 

Chad was undisturbed. “Hey, you could just go over there and do something instead of sitting here, wallowing. Same goes for you,” he said to Chris and reached for the green bottle.

 

Now both Chris and Dani looked like they were ready to murder Chad.

 

Jensen chuckled and reached for a bottle filled with red shine.

 

Dani turned her glare on him. “At least I’m not getting drunk because of a person _sitting at this table_.”

 

“That is—” Jensen started angrily.

 

“Okay, can we stop with this bullshit?” Jared asked loudly. He reached for the bottle closest to him and poured something light green in his glass. “So Jensen and I fucked in a closet, get over it.”

 

Chris, Dani, and Chad stared at him with their mouths open.

 

Jared rolled his eyes. “We’re both consenting adults and we’re in a really fucked up situation here. So we blew off some steam. Why is this such a big deal? Jensen, back me up here!”

 

Jensen, who was clearly surprised by Jared’s outburst managed to recover pretty quickly. He raised his glass and nodded at Jared.

 

“Jared’s right. Whatever we do behind closed doors,” Chad snorted and Jensen glared at him, “of whatever room we choose, is our business.”

 

“Just because you guys can’t get some,” Jared said and pointed his glass at Chris and Dani.

 

“Fair enough,” Chris said. “But we reserve the right to bring it up whenever you two get awkward.”

 

“There’s going to be no awkwardness,” Jensen said calmly, looking Jared straight in the eyes.

 

Jared raised his glass and took a sip from his glass. “No awkwardness.”

 

Jensen mirrored him.

 

Chris leaned back and looked up to the ceiling. “Oh boy.”

 

The rest of the evening passed in kind of a blur. The booze played a big part of that. Jared tried all the different flavors and most of them weren’t too bad. Chad was right about the blue one though, that one burned a hot line straight down his esophagus. Jared didn’t know how Chris and Dani managed to drink almost all of the blue bottle between the two of them and walk in a mostly straight line to the bathrooms.

 

They talked about all kinds of things, resistance adventures, Jared’s smuggling adventures, Jensen and Chris sneaking out from training, Chad almost blowing up Beta university for his final project.

 

When Alona left the pub with one of the guys she’d been sitting with, the conversation turned to lost loves but that was mainly Chad bloviating about all the women he’d loved and had to leave. The rest were mostly silent.

 

At some point, Dani and Chris joined Seb and his drinking buddies, Chad went off to bed and only Jensen and Jared were left at the table.

 

“No awkwardness, remember,” Jensen said and his speech was slightly slurred.

 

Jared wasn’t entirely sober himself anymore. “Hey, we just blew off some steam. After a little miscommunication.”

 

“Miscommunication.” Jensen snorted derisively. “You fucking lied.”

 

“I thought you weren’t gonna give me shit?”

 

“I said I’m not giving you shit for not fighting with us,” Jensen explained slowly, eyes a little glassy. “I reserve the right to give you shit for lying to me whenever the fuck I want.”

 

Jared wanted to argue, then he reconsidered. “Fair enough. Lying’s not cool.”

 

Jensen raised an eyebrow. “Says the smuggler.”

 

Jared grinned. “I only lie to the government. And the occasional shady business associate. But never my crew.”

 

Jensen put his arm on the table and pointed at Jared. “But I’m not part of your crew. Seeing as you don’t wanna help.”

 

Jensen had a point. And somehow he didn’t. Jared couldn’t make sense of it with his alcohol addled brain. “I’m too drunk for this conversation.”

 

Jensen snorted again and emptied his glass. “Lightweight.”

 

Jared peered into his glass. “I have a feeling there’s more alcohol in here than in our stuff.”

 

“Maybe.” Jensen didn’t really look interested in alcohol levels in moonshine.

 

To counteract the buzzing in his head, Jared leaned back against the carved chair and looked up only to groan at the sight of the stoney ceiling. It was pretty, as far as stoney ceilings went, decorated with tiny glowing lights in muted greens and blues but it was still solid rock.

 

“You’re gonna puke, do it in the river if you can’t make it to the restrooms,” Jensen said.

 

Jared shook his head, which — bad idea. “It’s the fucking rocks. I hate being below ground.”

 

“Did you get locked up in a cave or something?” Jensen asked and poured himself the rest of the green bottle.

 

Jared shook his head again and fuck, he _really_ needed to stop doing that. “Nah. I just need open space. I never liked being stuck on a planet and this is the worst.”

 

Jensen gave him a confused look. “But what about when you grew up?”

 

“I grew up on a spaceship.” Jared smiled wistfully. “My mom was a deckhand on a freight ship. She got pregnant in some random port and I was born in the Third Rim, halfway between the Taurus and the Ares system. We never stayed in a port longer than a few weeks.”

 

“That explains a lot,” Jensen said.

 

“How do you mean?”

 

Instead of answering, Jensen waved him off. “I’m gonna go to bed.”

 

Just as well. Jared didn’t like to talk about his childhood. It wasn’t all bad, in fact, he had some good times, but recently his already tainted memories had turned bitter even more, ever since he’d gotten the news of Dedee’s funeral. He was not going to talk about that.

 

Going to bed on the other hand sounded pretty good. His head was swimming and his legs and arms already felt heavy. “Good idea.”

 

They stood, and slowly walked towards the exit. When they crossed one of the little bridges, Jensen reached back and gave Jared a hard shove. The world tilted and Jared landed in a shocking splash of  cold water.

 

Sputtering, he fought to get to the surface until he realized he could actually stand in the river, his head and shoulders clearing the water. The few people still left in the bar were laughing good-naturedly. Angrily, he looked around for Jensen who stood a few paces away and watched him with a supremely pleased expression.

 

“It’s a rite of passage,” he said with a lazy grin, then turned around and walked away. Swaggered away, actually, all bowlegged and loose limbed. Jared couldn’t look away.

 

Dani came over to the river and cleared her throat. With a knowing grin, she offered Jared a hand. “Welcome to the crew,” she said and pulled him out.

 

The upside from his trip into the river was that Jared felt sober enough to find his way back to their rooms. Not sober enough for a straight line, but finding a bed was the goal, no matter how. He knocked on Felicia's door but there was no answer. Fuck, she slept like the dead.

 

With swaying steps, Jared walked down to the corridor to the green door. Jensen had pushed him into the fucking river, he could deal with Jared in his room.

 

Inside, he found Jensen already in bed, snoring slightly. Jared had no idea where the cot was Jensen had talked about and honestly, he didn’t care. He was wet, tired, and drunk. So he took off his boots and jacket, managed to hop out of his pants without falling over and then climbed into the large bed next to Jensen. It was a little tight but right now, Jared didn't care. He just wanted to sleep.

  


 

**Author's Note:**

> You can come find me on tumblr [here](http://ashtray-thief.tumblr.com/).


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